Quickly Quotable #18 – J. M. Barrie

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.”
— J.M. Barrie

“Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder.”
— J.M. Barrie (Peter and Wendy)

“Off we skip like the most heartless things in the world, which is what children are, but so attractive; and we have an entirely selfish time, and then when we have need of special attention we nobly return for it, confident that we shall be rewarded instead of smacked.”
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

Sir James Matthew Barrie (born May 9, 1860, Kirriemuir, Angus, Scot. — died June 19, 1937, London, Eng.) Scottish playwright and novelist. After moving to London, he wrote Auld Licht Idylls (1888), a book about his native Scotland. His best-selling novel The Little Minister (1891) was made into a play in 1897. His plays Quality Street (1901) and The Admirable Crichton (1902) ran successfully in London. After creating the stories of Peter Pan for a friend’s sons, he won great success with his classic children’s play Peter Pan, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904). His other plays include The Twelve-Pound Look (1910) and Dear Brutus (1917).

Quotes from Goodreads.com, Bio from Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (via Answers.com)

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