Literary Birthday – 13 September – Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born on 13 September 1916 and died on 23 November 1990.

13th September is known as Roald Dahl Day

Roald Dahl Quotes

1. Don’t gobblefunk around with words.
2. I began to realise how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do.
3. Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.
4. The life of a writer is absolute hell … if he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.
5. A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.
6. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.
7. I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.
8. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.
9. And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
10. If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
11. If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.
12. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.
13. Though my father was Norwegian, he always wrote his diaries in perfect English.

Follow this link to read what Dahl’s illustrator, Quentin Blake, had to say about his famous writing hut. There are also these 5 Quite Interesting Facts About Roald Dahl and these 7 Writing Tips From Roald Dahl and you can read Roald Dahl Tops The List Of The 50 Greatest Storytellers Of All Time

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot, and screenwriter. He became one of the world’s bestselling authors, known for his sharp wit, dark humour, and surprising endings. Dahl first gained bestseller status with his short story collections for adults. Someone Like You brought together a series of macabre stories, followed by Kiss, Kiss, which explored troubled and often unsettling relationships. He later became famous for his children’s books, including The Witches, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, and George’s Marvelous Medicine. His stories often feature brave children who outwit cruel, foolish, or hypocritical adults. He combined fantasy, mischief, and wicked humour with a simple, accessible style that appealed to young readers. Dahl admired writers such as Beatrix Potter, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace Thackeray. By the early 21st century, Dahl’s books had sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

Source for Image: Carl Van Vechten, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roald_Dahl.jpg

by Amanda Patterson
Are you interested in more authors’ birthdays? Please click here: The Complete Author Birthday Calendar