Tolkien Quotes

[Lairënuriel]

"I have recently made some tape-recordings of parts of the Hobbit and The Lord (notable the Gollum-passages and some pieces of 'Elvish') and was much surprised to discover their effectiveness as recitations, and (if I may say so) my own effectiveness as a narrator, I do a very pretty Gollum and Treebeard."

J.R.R. Tolkien in a Letter to Rayner Unwin - August 29, 1952

"Being a cult figure in one's own lifetime I am afraid is not at all pleasant. However I do not find that it that it tends to puff one up; in my case at any rate it makes me feel extremely small and inadequate. But even the nose of a very modest idol (younger than Chu-Bu and not much older than Sheemish) cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense!"

J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to Sir Patrick Browne - May 23, 1972

"Also I now deeply regret having used Elves, though this is a word in ancestry and original meaning suitable enough. But the disastrous debasement of this word, in which Shakespeare played an unforgiveable part, has really overloaded it with regrettable tones, which are too much to overcome."

J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to Hugh Brogan - September 18, 1954