The Little White Bird; Or, Adventures in Kensington Gardens

“She let her hands play in the hair of the tragic boy. She was not a little girl heart-broken about him; she was a grown woman smiling at it all, but they were wet smiles.””

— J. M. Barrie

“It is a blessing that he did not know, for otherwise he would have lost faith in his power to fly, and the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.””

— J. M. Barrie

“My dog knows very little, but what little he does know he knows extraordinarily well.””

— J. M. Barrie

“Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darling's guesses.””

— J. M. Barrie

“Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose.””

— J. M. Barrie

“The man was not wholly evil; he loved flowers (I have been told) and sweet music (he was himself no mean performer on the harpsichord);””

— J. M. Barrie

“with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, 'To die will be an awfully big adventure.””

— J. M. Barrie

“Never, never!" she answered with conviction, "he would have been afraid." "What is afraid?" asked Peter longingly. He thought it must be some splendid thing. "I do wish you would teach me how to be afraid, Maimie," he said.””

— J. M. Barrie

“I loved even her naughtinesses, as when she stamped her foot at me, which she could not do without also gnashing her teeth, like a child trying to look fearsome. How pretty was that gnashing of her teeth! All her tormentings of me turned suddenly into sweetnesses, and who could torment like this exquisite fury, wondering in sudden flame why she could give herself to anyone, while I wondered only why she could give herself to me.””

— J. M. Barrie