Nature & Animals Quote by Cornelia Funke

Domestic tenderness can be a form of rebellion. Cornelia Funke, best known for fantasy that treats imagination as a serious moral instrument, points to a surprisingly unenchanted ritual: visiting her horse, walking her dog. The line works because it refuses the glamorous mythology of the writer as sleepless brain-in-a-jar, producing worlds on demand. Instead, she frames creativity as something that benefits from weight, breath, weather, and the steady, nonverbal company of animals.

The intent feels almost disarmingly practical: a description of what restores her. But the subtext is sharper. Horses and dogs don’t care about your deadlines, your reviews, your brand. They demand presence. A horse requires attentiveness and calm authority; a dog insists on routine and play. In a culture that measures value by output and online visibility, Funke’s preference reads like a quiet refusal to be endlessly legible and productive.

Context matters because Funke’s fiction often centers children navigating peril with courage and empathy; her worlds turn on loyalty, instinct, and the reality of bodies moving through space. This quote suggests the well those qualities come from. The “walk” is also key: not exercise-as-optimization, but a pacing that lets thought unspool. There’s a pastoral undertone, but not as escapism. It’s a reminder that imagination isn’t just a mental trick; it’s a rhythm you keep with other living creatures, a way to re-enter the human scale when everything else wants to inflate.