Coraline is a dark fantasy children’s novella by British author Neil Gaiman, published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and Harper Collins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella, the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novella, and the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers. Profoundly inspirational coraline quotes will brighten up your day and make you feel ready to take on anything.
If you’re searching for best quotes from children’s books that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of profound Velveteen Rabbit quotes, amazing Little Prince quotes and top Narnia quotes.
Famous Coraline Quotes
No? said Coraline. Coraline
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Neil Gaiman
You can, said Coraline. Be brave. Coraline
Because, she said, when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave. Neil Gaiman
I asked you not to call me Caroline. It’s Coraline. Coraline Jones
I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that, and it didn’t mean anything? What then? Neil Gaiman
If you won’t even talk to me, said Coraline, I am going exploring. Coraline Jones
But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it? Neil Gaiman
Coraline hesitated. She turned back. Her other mother and her other father were walking toward her, holding hands. They were looking at her with their black button eyes. Or at least she thought they were looking at her. Coraline
It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be. Neil Gaiman
I’m bored, she said. Learn how to tap dance, he suggested, without turning around. Coraline shook her head. Why don’t you play with me? she asked. Coraline
The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names. Neil Gaiman
I’m an explorer, thought Coraline to herself. Coraline Jones
The sky had never seemed so sky; the world had never seemed so world. Neil Gaiman
Coraline walked down the hallway to her father’s study. He had his back to her, but she knew, just on seeing him, that his eyes, when he turned around, would be her father’s kind gray eyes, and she crept over and kissed him on the back of his balding head. Coraline
Mirrors, she said, are never to be trusted. Neil Gaiman
But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it? Coraline
I have no plans to love you, said Coraline. No matter what. You can’t make me love you. Neil Gaiman
The sky had never seemed so sky; the world had never seemed so world. Coraline
Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home. You’ll be bored. You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you, really listen to you. You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don’t even get your name right. Neil Gaiman
Oh my twitchy witchy girl. I think you are so nice, I give you bowls of porridge. Coraline
Now you people have names. That’s because you don’t know who you are. We know who we are, so we don’t need names. Neil Gaiman
When you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave. Coraline Jones
Coraline shivered. She preferred her other mother to have a location if she were nowhere, then she could be anywhere. And, after all, it is always easier to be afraid of something you cannot see. Neil Gaiman
It wasn’t brave because he wasn’t scared it was the only thing he could do. But going back again to get his glasses, when he knew the wasps were there, when he was really scared. That was brave. Coraline Jones
I was kidnapped by aliens, they came down from outer space with ray guns, but I fooled them by wearing a wig and laughing in a foreign accent, and I escaped. Neil Gaiman
I have no plans to love you. Coraline Jones
You know I love you, said the other mother flatly. You have a very funny way of showing it, said Coraline. Neil Gaiman
I want to be with my real mom and dad. I want you to let me go! Coraline Jones
The world seemed to shimmer a little at the edges. Neil Gaiman
What if everyone got what they wanted? Coraline Jones
The cat wrinkled its nose and managed to look unimpressed. Calling cats, it confided, tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind. Neil Gaiman
I can’t believe it. You and Dad get paid to write about plants, and you hate dirt. Coraline Jones
On the first day Coraline’s family moved in, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible made a point of telling Coraline how dangerous the well was, and they warned her to be sure she kept away from it. So Coraline set off to explore for it, so that she knew where it was, to keep away from it properly. Neil Gaiman
Eat? That’s ridiculous, mothers don’t eat daughters. Coraline Jones
There’s a but, isn’t there? said Coraline. I can feel it. Like a rain cloud. Neil Gaiman
But, Mom, I want stuff growing when my friends come to visit. Isn’t that why we moved here? Coraline Jones
They were having an argument as old and comfortable as an armchair, the kind of argument that no one ever really wins or loses but which can go on forever, if both parties are willing. Neil Gaiman
We could be rare specimens of an exotic breed of African dancing elephants. But we’re not. At least, it added cattily, after darting a brief look at Coraline, I’m not. Coraline.
It won’t hurt, said her other father. Coraline knew that when grown ups told you something wouldn’t hurt it almost always did. She shook her head. Neil Gaiman
No, said the cat. ‘Now, you people have names. That’s because you don’t know who you are. We know who we are, so we don’t need names. Coraline
Being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. Being brave means you are scared, really scared, badly scared, and you do the right thing anyway. Neil Gaiman
You probably think this world is a dream come true but you’re wrong. Cat
When you are scared, but you do it anyway, that’s brave. Neil Gaiman
She wants something to love, I think, said the cat. Something that isn’t her. She might want something to eat as well. It’s hard to tell with creatures like that. Coraline
For a moment she felt utterly dislocated. She did not know where she was; she was not entirely sure who she was. It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the bed we wake up in in the morning and it is astonishing how fragile that can be. Neil Gaiman
I don’t know. How do you taste? Cat
She sat down on one of her grandmother’s uncomfortable armchairs, and the cat sprang up into her lap and made itself comfortable. The light that came through the picture window was daylight, real golden late afternoon daylight, not a white mist light. The sky was a robin’s egg blue, and Coraline could see trees and, beyond the trees, green hills, which faded on the horizon into purples and grays. The sky had never seemed so sky, the world had never seemed so world. Nothing, she thought, had ever been so interesting. Neil Gaiman
Please. What’s your name? Coraline asked the cat. Look, I’m Coraline. Okay? The cat yawned slowly, carefully, revealing a mouth and tongue of astounding pinkness. Cats don’t have names, it said. Coraline
The hand, running high on its fingertips, scrabbled through the tall grass and up onto a tree stump. It stood there for a moment, like a crab tasting the air, and then it made one triumphant, nail clacking leap onto the center of the paper tablecloth. Coraline
The cat looked as if it were about to say something sarcastic. Then it flicked its whiskers and said, Challenge her. There’s no guarantee she’ll play fair, but her kind of thing loves games and challenges. Neil Gaiman
Coraline, How dare you disobey your mother?! The Other Mother
Spiders webs only have to be large enough to catch flies. Neil Gaiman
The other mother stared down at Coraline with big black button eyes. Coraline, my darling, she said. I thought we could play some games together this morning, now you’re back from your walk. Hopscotch? Happy Families? Monopoly? Coraline
She had the feeling that the door was looking at her, which she knew was silly, and knew on a deeper level was somehow true. Neil Gaiman
The Other Mother You know I love you. Coraline You have a very funny way of showing it. Coraline
Coraline wondered why so few of the adults she met made any sense. Neil Gaiman
The expression of delight on her face was a very bad thing to see. You’re wrong! You don’t know where your parents are, do you? They aren’t there. She turned and looked at Coraline. Now, she said, you’re going to stay here for ever and always. Coraline
The cat dropped the rat between its two front paws. There are those, it said with a sigh, in tones as smooth as oiled silk, who have suggested that the tendency of a cat to play with its prey is a merciful one after all, it permits the occasional funny little running snack to escape, from time to time. How often does your dinner get to escape? Neil Gaiman
How do I know you’ll keep your word? asked Coraline. I swear it, said the other mother. Coraline
But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange and red, and red and orange and yellow, like the ember in a nursery fire of a winter’s evening. I remember them. Neil Gaiman
You know that I love you. And despite herself, Coraline nodded. It was true. The other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold. Coraline
I will be brave, thought Coraline. No, I am brave. Neil Gaiman
Coraline, we’ve been through this before. You dad cooks, I clean, and you stay out of the way. I swear I’ll go food shopping soon as we finish the catalog. Try some of the chard. You need a vegetable. Mel
It is always easier to be afraid of something you cannot see. Neil Gaiman
How infinite in faculty! In form and moving, how express and admirable! Miss Spink
I think most things are pretty magical, and that it’s less a matter of belief than it is one of just stopping to notice. Neil Gaiman
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! Miss Forcible
She found herself to be quite worried that something would jump out at her, so she began to whistle. She thought it might make it harder for things to jump out at her, if she was whistling. Neil Gaiman
We are small but we are many. We are many we are small. We were here before you rose. We will be here when you fall. The Rats
Someone had once told her that if you look up at the sky from the bottom of a mine shaft, even in the brightest daylight, you see the night sky and stars. Neil Gaiman
Bless you, miss. You found me! But there’s two eyes still lost. Ghost Boy
Be clever, miss. Even if you win, she’ll never let you go! Ghost Girl
Here you go, she said. I don’t need it anymore. I’m very grateful. I think it may have saved my life, saved some other people’s death. Neil Gaiman
Stay here with us. We will listen to you and play with you and laugh with you. Coraline
When you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave. Neil Gaiman
What’s shakn baby? Coraline
Because, she said, when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave. Neil Gaiman
Hush, and shush, for the beldam might be listening. Tall Ghost Girl
Small world, said Coraline. It’s big enough for her, said the cat. Spiders webs only have to be large enough to catch flies. Neil Gaiman
