Peter Beagle Quotes

[peterbeaglequotes]

No, no, listen, don't listen to me, listen. You can find your people if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints. Let nothing you dismay, but don’t be half-safe.

— The Last Unicorn

[rayadraws]

I need to ramble a bit about The Last Unicorn, specifically the scene where the unicorn frees and fights the harpy. If you haven't seen it, here you go!

TLU is not a big-budget, big-name movie. It was made in 1982 and there's little errors and mistakes here and there throughout it. But so what, when the rest of it is so beautiful and just jam-packed with absolutely raw lines. It's a fantastic movie. The book is so so so good.

But back to this scene, which I think about more often than I care to admit. The harpy and the unicorn are the two only true magic creatures that have been captured and are being shown off for money among a variety of common beasts put under illusion spells. The unicorn states that she cannot bear to see the harpy caged; that they are the same, two sides of the same magic. And she warns the old witch that captured them that the harpy will kill her one day - and the witch agrees and is pleased with that, because the harpy will forever remembet her and that'll be her own immortality.

The unicorn is finally freed and releases the harpy, knowing full well that she'll be attacked by it. And the way the fight plays out I think is just so well done, showing the advantage the harpy has from the air, her relentless but fruitless attacks. The little zoom-ins on her face, the close ups of her talons.

And then, of course, as Schmendrick begs for them to leave, with the unicorn delivering one of those raw lines that has stayed with me since I was a little kid watching this movie for the first time;

"No, come with me. Come with me. Don't look back and don't run. You must never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention."

If you haven't, I strongly recommend to see the movie.

[kedreeva]

Some of my favorite lines from The Last Unicorn

"Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces, to call you once by your name."

"Do not boast, old woman. Your death sits in that cage, and she hears you."

"It's a very rare person who's taken for who he really is."

"My dear, you deserve the services of a great wizard, but I'm afraid you'll have settle for the aid of a second rate pick pocket."

"Don't look back, and don't run. You must never run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention."

"And you? You have no regrets, as I do?" "I can never regret. I can feel sorrow, but it's not the same thing."

One of my favorite conversations:

Unicorn: "You may come with me, if you like, though I wish you'd asked for some other reward for freeing me." Shmendrick: "Well, I thought about it. But you could never have granted my true wish." Unicorn: "No. I cannot turn you into something you are not. I cannot turn you into a true magician." Schmendrick: "That's alright, don't worry about it." Unicorn: "I'm not."

"She's the last unicorn in the world." "It would be the last unicorn in the world that came to Molly Grue."

"The magic chose the shape, not I. I am a bearer, I am a bearer, I am a dwelling!" "You are an idiot!"

[hurglewurm]

alan arkin as schmendrick the magician in the last unicorn, 1982

[relicsofasaint]

<333

[prompts-in-a-barrel]

"You don't know me. I'm not the same person anymore."

"That's okay. I'll get to know you again."

[californiannostalgia]

[elizabethswitch]

You are as alive as I am, and you are yourself. If you are not the Lukassa I followed here, maybe there never was any such person. Myself, I cannot be the Tikat I was, and I am well content with that, as long as you and I recognize each other.

--Peter S. Beagle

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

One thing I really appreciate in "Two Hearts" is how Schmendrick’s curse has still some long-lasting effects on him, even many years after he has come into his full power.

Molly mentions he has very warped sense of time, and he does not seem to be able to realistically perceive how many years have passed since the last time he and Molly have seen Lìr, until it's too late. He himself says that he is not too willing to use magic on himself, even if for healing purposes, because it "dulls" the feeling of being mortal and human.

But most importantly he probably has an underlying, paralyzing fear of losing his loved ones. Schmendrick is the one who is stubbornly clinging to the idea of younger, heroic Lìr, despite all evidence that poor Lìr is old and withering (on the subject, I wanted to mention a lot more things but I want to avoid spoilers, even though it's very telling how he reacts and what he does towards the end of the story). Just imagine how he would react at the slightest sign that Molly is unwell, or if she ever happens to experience a health scare or an injury (the tree that fell on her that she mentions, anyone?). The thought of outliving someone he loves and cares about, after who knows how many years of not being able to form life-long connections because those around you will invariably die of old age while you are stuck in time, would probably send him tailspinning in a panic.

It takes guts from an author to not treat such a life-altering curse like a simple plot device, but as something that has severe after effects on the cursed character and keeping it consistent.

[peterbeaglequotes]

He appears in a short story set before The Last Unicorn, when he was still immortal, which… let’s just say, woof. He is really not ok in that one. He’s stuck in time and so alone.

It’s "The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon" and was published in the collection Sleight of Hand.

[movie-gifs]

THE LAST UNICORN 1982, dir. Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass

[quecksilvereyes]

listen its about the last unicorn being fundamentally no different from the harpy and feeling more compassion for her than she does the trapped animals or the humans trapped by circumstance. it's about haggard grabbing the unicorn only once she has become human enough for him to drag her down and realise her eyes are empty. it's about schmendrick and the magic that lives in him more than he wields it, it's about "never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention" while walking slowly from an unspeakable horror devouring an old woman, it's about "how dare you come to me now, when I am this?". it's about the unicorns staying in the water until they can't anymore, until the castle crumbles and the one unicorn who is different from the others now - she lowers her horn and she digs her hooves in and she stands her ground for a dear, dead boy. it's about the trade of immortality between schmendrick and the unicorn, it's about stories needing to be told, it's about lir loving the unicorn enough to know that she cannot stay with him, and to let her would be to do her a disservice.

it's about "your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. i would tear myself to pieces to call you once by your name." it's about regret.

(it's also about little 5 year old me renting the movie from the library whenever i could and watching it on loop for hours. it's about just how much this story has shaped me and my understanding of storytelling.)

[lightningcrashes]

I am sorry. I have done you evil, and I cannot undo it. No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me as long as that joy, save one. And I thank you for that part, too.

THE LAST UNICORN 1982・dir. Arthur Rankin Jr. & Jules Bass

[where-is-tosh]

"I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am full of tears and hunger and the fear of death, though I cannot weep, and I want nothing, and I cannot die. No unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I do.

I regret." – Peter Beagle, The Last Unicorn

[macksting]

I've met him in person btw and he's a fucking sweetheart

[ID: Text-intensive Twitter thread from the Shapeshifters chest binders Twitter account in reply to a post by artist and author Ursula Vernon. Vernon says, A non-zero number of you apparently did not know that The Last Unicorn was a book before it was a movie. It is by Peter S. Beagle. It is made of spun glass and fairytales and iron knives and there are individual lines that I would give my lungs to have written. Shapechangers replies, I saw him every year at NYCC for several years straight, bought something at his table, asked him to sign it, and we spoke. He remembered me from year to year, no small feat at that con. He remembered which stories he'd told me. One year I came back with a different gender on. He squinted at me a bit and said thoughtfully, "I've seen you before in this place." All I had to say was, "last year you told me the story about the inoshishi." And his face cleared, and he leaned in with a grin and told me about a German guitarist who he traveled with, twice. Who transitioned between the first and second time, so he'd gotten to meet this person all over again on the second round. It was a wonderfully kind way to let me know that everything was fine. I was fresh out of the closet and I needed that, and maybe he could see it. The Last Unicorn is the best book in the world and I will defend it and its author til I die. the end. /end ID]

I don't usually talk about celebrities; artists, when I do, and I'm keenly aware that one needn't be a good person to be a hell of a heartwrenching artist. But Peter S. Beagle has written a few of my favorite things in the world, he's an excellent singer and filker, and this Twitter thread was dreadfully important to me. I don't want it going away as Twitter becomes Shitter, because it's so often bad news, isn't it? It's important to me to share trans joy.

[ixchavalatarius]

as a trans who used this book as a medium to help rationalise my feelings, this makes my heart so happy

[macksting]

Yeah... I think about The Last Unicorn prolly several times a week on average. At some point after my egg finally shattered in 2018 in my 30s, I started to worry, what with all the other folks who seem to need to opine and array against us, what that sweetheart of a man would think of me now. That's when my wife pointed out this thread to me. I cried. Happy tears, you know how it is. I most often linked it to people on Discord, but decided it was time to put it somewhere I could find it when Xitter was done flushing. I am very very glad it's been so important to people. It is important. But sometimes important things don't get traction.

[shapeshiftersvt]

A golden memory.

[shapeshiftersvt]

I was thinking about this moment again today, trying to remember exactly what he said to me, in that noisy crowded artists' alley on that hot October day. It was something about how it was a gift, how he'd received the gift of learning and knowing his friend the guitarist more fully, this wonderful present of traveling with their true self. He spoke about it with gratitude, with a wellspring of warmth that showed how happy it had made him. I think Peter Beagle might have been the first person to imply to me that my transition is a gift to others. That living my life fully and honestly is a way of gifting others with something precious and good, something that they can appreciate and remember for decades later. What a skill. What a power. He didn't miss a beat. He just whipped out an anecdote from his own life that told me, (a) it was fine, I was fine, (b) I wasn't his first trans person, not by a longshot, not by years and years, (c) my transitioning was a good and wonderful thing actually, (d) there are trans adults out in the world doing cool shit like touring Europe with famous fantasy authors, (e) he was happy to know them, and me. All layered in a quick story over a signed book. I've met charismatic people. Politicians, leaders, authors, musicians, people who could grab your attention with a few words and a warm gesture and a spark in their eyes. People who could suss out the right thing to say within minutes, people who could launch into an impromptu speech that lasted hours and captivated everyone around them. None of them hit me with that Ring of Keys moment like Peter Beagle, can you feel my heart / saying hi?, except maybe John Darnielle. I hope someday I can touch people's lives like that. I've been so fucking fortunate. I have to survive long enough to help someone else like he helped me.

[dataanalyzer]

Just wanted to say the theme song for the animated The Last Unicorn movie slaps and the chorus of "I'm alive!" gets me every time

[vaspider]

This post got me to put the movie on. I hadn't watched it in years.

[peterbeaglequotes]

“But you have to be very careful, because a bard’s last song has power. You never tell that song; you never sing it anywhere; you keep it for that day when it’s the only song left to you. Because a last song is always answered.”

[peterbeaglequotes]

“This is quite interesting. I must tell you that no is very nearly my favorite word. I believe it to be my companion’s favorite word as well, unless I am wrong?” He slanted a bristly gray eyebrow at Lal.

The old woman pondered, as the armed men and their servants rumbled and shifted and laughed amongst themselves, as the boy waited empty-faced for life or death, as the Metzari hound still whined in the thornbush. She said slowly, “Of course, maybe is good, too — maybe is an excellent word. But at the last, when you come down to it, there is really nothing like no.”