17 Quotes & Sayings By Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper was born in London in 1931. She spent her childhood in India where her father was the Commissioner of the Indian Tax Service. When she was eleven, her family returned to England and she attended St Paul's Girls' School. She won a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford, but after three years decided to leave university and accept a job with an advertising agency. Her first novel, The Tenth Queen of Scotland (1975), is set in York during the time of Edward I Read more

It was the first book by an Englishwoman to be published by Viking Press in the United States, illustrated by Brian Froud. Cooper next wrote The Dark Is Rising (1978), which became the basis for two film adaptations: The Last Unicorn (1982) and Dragonheart (1996). These books are set in England during the period of the Wars of the Roses. Later she wrote The Grey King (1990), which is set during World War II, and The Grey King's Daughter (1994), about a woman who has been left behind on a mountain by her soldier husband during World War II. She also wrote many children's books which have been illustrated by Brian Froud, including The Dark Is Rising Sequence, The Merlin Conspiracy Sequence, Merlin's Crystal, Merlin's Ring, Merlin's Ring Lost, Merlin's Ruby, Merlin's Sword and Crystal of Doom.

Cooper also wrote two short stories for magazines: "The Werewolf", "Hawk Moth" and "A Friend For Lunch". She has written three full-length novels for young adults: A Thief in Time (1993), A Quest for Arthur (2001) and The Pendragon Legacy (2007). Cooper has also written two novels for adults: An Age of Misrule (1989) and The Lake House at Whitsun (1994).

She has written seven collections of short stories entitled Stranger Than Magic. She lives with her husband on the Kent coast near Maidstone in southern England. She enjoys walking, cooking and reading history books about people like Elizabeth I.

1
The hope is always here, always alive, but only your fierce caring can fan it into a fire to warm the world. Susan Cooper
2
It is a burden..( M)ake no mistake about that. Any great gift or power or talent is a burden and this more than any, and you will long to be free of it. But there is nothing to be done. If you were born with the gift, then you must serve it, and nothing in this world or out of it may stand in the way of that service, because that is why you were born and that is the Law."- Susan Cooper ("Merriman" The Dark is Rising). Susan Cooper
3
The future can not blame the present, just as the present cannot blame the past. Susan Cooper
4
And at the last all shall be safe, and evil thrust out never to return. And so that the trust be kept, he said, I give it into your charge, and your sons', and your sons' sons, until the day come. Susan Cooper
5
All life is theatre, ' he said. 'We are all actors, you and I, in a play which nobody wrote and which nobody will see. We have no audience but ourselves.... Susan Cooper
6
... He was not for that moment a human being, but a frenzied creature possessed by rage, turned into an animal. All that could be seen in him was the urge to hurt, and it was, as it always will be, the most dreadful sight in the world. Susan Cooper
7
Never dismiss anyone's value until you know him. Susan Cooper
8
Maybe because the Dark can only reach people at extremes; blinded by their own shining ideas, or locked up in the darkness of their own heads. Susan Cooper
9
Your father... doesn't work late for you to pinch his dinner. Susan Cooper
10
Open for sun, closed for rain, that's the poor man's weathervane. Susan Cooper
11
I do not believe any power can possess the mind of a man or woman... I believe in God-given free will, you see. I think nothing is forced on us, except by other people like ourselves. I think our choices are our own. Susan Cooper
12
You know how many there are. You can't convince them and you can't kill 'em. You can only do your best in the opposite direction... Susan Cooper
13
For this was Christmas, which had always been a time of magic, to him and to all the world. Susan Cooper
14
She understood about the comfort you can get from a small separate world, whether it's a theatre or a basketball team or the inside of a book. Susan Cooper
15
The night became silver again; looking up, it was as if they saw the moon sailing through the clouds instead of the other way around; racing smoothly across the sky, passing puffs and wisps of cloud on either side, and yet never moving from its place. Susan Cooper
16
Then very faintly, he heard above his head the low familiar murmur of the sea outside. At once the comfortable noise made him cheerful, and he even remembered what they were supposed to be. Susan Cooper