At all ages, if [fantasy and myth] is used well by the author and meets the right reader, it has the same power: to generalize while remaining concrete, to present in palpable form not concepts...

I know these are only dreams. I know these days are long past. I wake to a dream in which Hammer’s breath has stopped, and mine with it, and hearts have gone to a quiet...

There once was a woman named Story Easton who couldn’t decide if she should kill herself, or eat a double cheeseburger.

I believe in steel swords, gold coins, and man’s wits. (…) And I believe there once were dragons. I’ve seen their skulls, after all.

The literary fairy tale became an acceptable social symbolic form through which conventionalized motifs, characters, and plots were selected, composed, arranged, and rearranged to comment on the civilizing process and to keep alive the possibility...

Why didn’t my father get to give Mom the fairy tale? Why do most people fail to give each other the fairy tale?

The whole world had changed. Only the fairy tales remained the same.

The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in.

THE UNICORN: The saintly hermit, midway through his prayersstopped suddenly, and raised his eyes to witnessthe unbelievable: for there before him stoodthe legendary creature, startling white, thathad approached, soundlessly, pleading with his eyes.The legs, so...

Fairy tales were not my escape from reality as a child; rather, they were my reality — for mine was a world in which good and evil were not abstract concepts, and like fairy-tale heroines,...

Madame d’Aulnoy is the true mother of the modern fairy tale. She invented the modern Court of Fairyland, with its manners, its fairies, its queens, its amorous, its cruel, its good, its evil, its odious,...

Maybe the witch thought she was protecting Rapunzel, not punishing her. Maybe she thought that if Rapunzel was locked away, no one could ever hurt her. Maybe the witch kept Rapunzel because she loved her,...

Please tell me a story about a girl who gets away.”I would, even if I had to adapt one, even if I had to make one up just for her. “Gets away from what, though?””From...

If you happen to read fairy tales, you will observe that one idea runs from one end of them to the other–the idea that peace and happiness can only exist on some condition. This idea,...

Evil is also not anything small or close to home, and not the worst; otherwise one could grow accustomed to it.

Once upon a time there was a great queen who, having given birth to twin daughters, invited twelve fairies who lived nearby to come and bestow gifts upon them, as was the custom in those...

Perhaps I should admit on the title page that this book is “By L. Frank Baum and his correspondents,” for I have used many suggestions conveyed to me in letters from children. Once on a...

Well, can you tell her that?”He looked down at his feet. “I will. I will.”Guy-speak for, “I plan to keep avoiding her until she gives up.

It’s the problem with fairy tales. From far away, they seem so perfect. But up close, they’re just as complicated as real life.

Now fairy stories are at risk too, like the forests. Padraic Column has suggested that artificial lighting dealt them a mortal wound: when people could read and be productive after dark, something fundamental changed, and...

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.

Where’s the frog?

For it is a true fact that faeries, just like people, very often find that a full belly and a good friend are all that they need to be happy.

He rarely saw a doorway without advancing through it as if he owned it. Since he owned a good many doorways, he would have pointed out that this was a reasonable assumption.

Yep, there’s special eyes that only Jesus can give. When people have special eyes, they can see past a person’s face and show other people love.

Thankfully, the farmers understand my request that the children not be allowed to peer through the windows at me.It would be alarming for them to see me with their dolls, to see me using the...

Aging and the prospect of dying by no means enhance the attractiveness of fictitious comforts to come in paradise, or the veracity of malicious myths about hellfire and damnation. Fear and feeblemindedness cannot be credibly...

Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be...

The whole school is on these. We’ve had them for awhile now.

She had not meant to name them, but she could not help herself; and having done so she thought, Let their names be symbols that their lives are worth the keeping. Let them struggle a...

The thing about fairy tales is that the princess find her prince, but there’s usually a price to pay. A compromise is required for happily ever after. The woman in the fair tale is general...

[The fairy tale] is accused of giving children a false impression of the world they live in. But I think no literature that children could read gives them less of a false impression. I think...

Hammer does not think he will make it through this next winter. His breath comes short in his chest, and it takes much effort for him to get up and dressed. My body is still...

Corto à lui même: Ce serait bon de vivre dans une fable.Bouche Dorée à Corto: Oh oui!… Mais toi tu vis continuellement une fable et tu ne t’en aperçois plus. Lorsqu’un adulte entre dans le...

You don’t feed nightingales on fairy-tales

It has generally been assumed that fairy tales were first created for children and are largely the domain of children. But nothing could be further from the truth.From the very beginning, thousands of years ago,...

This is the list you carry in your pocket, of the things you plan to say to Kay, when you find him, if you find him:1. I’m sorry that I forgot to water your ferns...

And in what fairy tale would John ever be any sane person’s idea of Prince Charming anyway? He was the opposite of charming. More like Prince Terrifying.

Maybe love after all only exists in wonderful fairy tales. I’m just slowly starting to think that,but could I be wrong?

When I was a little girl I used to read fairy tales. In fairy tales you meet Prince Charming and he’s everything you ever wanted. In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to...

Once upon a time fairy tales were told to audiences of young and old alike. It is only in the last century that such tales were deemed fit only for small children, stripped of much...

…remember that the danger that is most to be feared is never the danger we are most afraid of.

Cinderella of course,” Danielle giggled.

Studies [on the origin of fairy-stories] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the pursuit of folklorists or anthropologists: that is of people using the stories not as they were meant to be...

Can you not see, […] that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and straightforward; but that this everlasting fiction about modern life is in its nature essentially incredible? Folk-lore means that the soul...

One more time” in the face of failure. Hope is what gives life to dreams, making the fairy tale the reality.

We can’t give you any further information,” the fairies replied. “Be satisfied, madam, with the assurance that your daughter will be happy.” She thanked them very much and did not forget to give them many...

There are many kinds of joy, but they all lead to one: the joy to be loved.

You’ll get fired if anyone finds out about us!””So many rules in this century,” Vane muttered.

Aber was da zum Vorschein kam, wuchs den Philologen über den Kopf, wie das so oft im Eifer der Wissenschaften vorkommt. Bei ihrem Vorhaben, im reinsten Interesse der Germanistik heimische Sagenschätze schlichter Bauern und ehrbarer...