D.W. Winnicott Quotes

There is no such thing as a baby, there is a baby and someone.

It is a joy to be hidden, and disaster not to be found.

Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.

The fact that grief takes so long to resolve is not a sign of inadequacy, but betokens depth of soul.

Tell me what you fear and I will tell you what has happened to you.

Feeling real is more than existing; it is finding a way to exist as oneself... and to have a self into which to retreat for relaxation.

Creativity consists in maintaining a key aspect of the experience of childhood throughout one's life: the capacity to create and recreate the world. Creativity is the omnipotence of the child's mind.

The precursor of the mirror is the mother's face.

The capacity to still feel wonder is essential to the creative process.

It is in playing, and perhaps only in playing, that the child is free to be creative.

It's a poor thing to be sane!

We fight to exist. Personally, I am not ashamed of fighting to exist. We are doing no very extraordinary thing to fight simply because we do not wish to be enslaved or exterminated.

I don't mind saying in advance that in my opinion jealousy is normal and healthy. Jealousy arises out of the fact that children love. If they have no capacity to love, then they don't show jealousy.

Play like dreams serves the function of self realization.

There is for many a poverty of play.

We are poor indeed if we are only sane.