Matilda Quotes

School teachers suffer a good deal from having to listen to this sort of twaddle from proud parents, but they usually get their own back when the time comes to write the end-of-term reports. If I w...

"I know it's a ghost!" Matilda said. "I've heard it here before! This room is haunted! I thought you knew that." (4.56)

It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs and bunions, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extra-ordinary, and by that I mean sens...

"Then go and catch them, Harry!" hissed the mother. "Go out and collar them red-handed!"The father didn't move. He seemed in no hurry to dash off and be a hero. His face had turned grey. (4.40-1)

By the time she was three, Matilda had taught herself to read by studying newspapers and magazines that lay around the house. At the age of four, she could read fast and well, and she naturally beg...

She gave the hat a sharp yank. Mr Wormwood let out a yell that rattled the window-panes. "Ow-w-w!" he screamed. "Don't do that! Let go! You'll take half the skin off my forehead!" (3.5)

It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful. (1.1)

During the first week of Matilda's visits Mrs Phelps had said to her, "Does your mother walk you down here every day and then take you home?""My mother goes to Aylesbury every afternoon to play bin...

She resented being told constantly that she was ignorant and stupid when she knew she wasn't. […] She decided that every time her father or her mother was beastly to her, she would get her own ba...