Joan Aiken

“Why do we want to have alternate worlds? It's a way of making progress. You have to imagine something before you do it. ”
― Joan Aiken

“Night's winged horses
No one can outpace
But midnight is no moment
Midnight is a place.

Meet me at Midnight,
Among the Queen Anne's Lace
Midnight is not a moment,
Midnight is a place—

When, when shall I meet you
When shall I see your face
For I am living in time at present
But you are living in space.

Time is only a corner
Age is only a fold
A year is merely a penny
Spent from a century's gold.

So meet me, meet me at midnight
(With sixty seconds' grace)
Midnight is not a moment;
Midnight is a place.”
― Joan Aiken, Midnight Is a Place

“Words are like spices. Too many is worse than too few.”
― Joan Aiken, The Last Slice of Rainbow and Other Stories

“Her smile was like a swift light passing across a darkened room.

("Hair")”
― Joan Aiken, Best New Horror 23

“You may think it odd that there were three men to look after one tiny station, but the people who ran the railway knew that if you left two men together in a lonely place they would quarrel, but if you left three men, two of them could always grumble to each other about the third, and then they would be quite happy.”
― Joan Aiken, A Necklace of Raindrops and Other Stories

“the silence behind her was closing and thickening, and becoming coloured, like water into which a brilliant dye is being poured”
― Joan Aiken, The Cuckoo Tree