Home > Work > Charmed Life (Chrestomanci, #1)
1 " Chrestomanci smiled and swept out of the room like a very long procession of one person. "
― Diana Wynne Jones , Charmed Life (Chrestomanci, #1)
2 " Then watch out. I warn you!" "That is very considerate of you," said Chrestomanci. "I like to be warned. "
3 " And it's a pity too that I've no right to open your letters. I hope you don't get many, or my conscience will give me no peace. "
4 " Dear Chant,The same to you. Go to blazes. Chrestomanci "
5 " The more I see of witchcraft, the more it seems just an easy way to be nasty. "
6 " He could not believe things could get any worse—so they had to get better. "
7 " The job Chrestomanci has is to make sure this world isn’t run entirely by witches. Ordinary people have rights too. "
8 " you may not want to visit Series Eight, a bleak and stony world, or Series Six, where the worlds are covered in ice. And don’t be fooled by Series Eleven, as it’s not a Series at all, but just one world. But you may like Series Five, with its islands and mermaids. And if you’re looking for a good cup of hot chocolate, Series Nine is the place for you. "
9 " Pudgy is comfortable,” said Julia. “It must be a nuisance to look like a china doll, the way you do. "
10 " People with nine lives are very important and very rare. They only happen when, for one reason or another, there are no counterparts of them living in any other world. Then the lives that would have been spread out over a whole set of worlds get concentrated in one person. And so do all the talents that those other eight people might have had. "
11 " As Chrestomanci has to be a nine-lifed enchanter, it stands to reason that any creature with the luck, gifts, and abilities of nine lives is going to be far more magical than a creature with just one! Which means that all cats are magical, even though their owners are probably not. Knowing this makes cats extremely confident and self-sufficient, and they put their magic to use all the time. How else could they appear from nowhere whenever the fridge door is opened? Or make a human open a door or window for them when they have a perfectly good cat flap of their own? Or seek out and snuggle up to the one person in the room who hates cats? "
12 " Janet had an odd air of being dressed up, rather than dressed. "
13 " There’s an enormous library, which boasts a copy of every book in the world — and many more from other worlds as well. "
14 " Which means that all cats are magical, even though their owners are probably not. Knowing this makes cats extremely confident and self-sufficient, and they put their magic to use all the time. How else could they appear from nowhere whenever the fridge door is opened? Or make a human open a door or window for them when they have a perfectly good cat flap of their own? Or seek out and snuggle up to the one person in the room who hates cats? Most of the time, cats don’t waste their energy displaying their superiority to non-magical humans. Occasionally they will, however, try to communicate with them — perhaps by staring at their subject for a very long time, or by sitting/standing/sleeping on whatever book/newspaper/homework that person might be occupied with, or by massaging that person’s leg/stomach/shoulder with very spiky claws while purring loudly. "
15 " The best advice for dealing with cats is: Always greet them politely. Don’t make an unnecessary fuss over them. Be on the alert for signs they want to communicate with you. Never, ever laugh at them! If you’re lucky, you might just find that your cat will decide that you are a magical person worthy of attention. Or then again, maybe they’d just like some fish. "
16 " If you annoy me, watch out! I shall put you in a book as a baddie and then make people laugh at you. "
17 " In this world people are used to doing by magic what we do by science. "