Books; I repeat, for they’ve not only been a solace during the long years but also provided the keys to understanding other people’s ideas and achievements, their hopes and fears, quirks and foibles, their dreams…..their...

Stories are light.

After all, in fairy tales, there was only one thing to do. In every story with a long sleep and a waking in it. An easy thing, a pretty thing. Standard currency.

Khattam-Shud,’ he said slowly, ‘is the Arch-Enemy of all Stories, even of language itself. He is the Prince of Silence and the Foe of Speech. And because everything ends, because dreams end, stories end, life...

Fairytales teach children that the world is fraught with danger, including life-threatening danger; but by being clever (always), honest (as a rule, but with common-sense exceptions), courteous (especially to the elderly, no matter their apparent...

But monsters are.” She opened her mouth wide and showed Azhar the wildflowers sitting on her tongue.

In books there are chapters to separate out the moments, to show that time is going by and things are changing, and sometimes the parts even have titles that are full of promise—’The Meeting’, ‘Hope’,...

There weren’t always happy endings and children would do well to know that vile things could happen to them, that witches and wolves were desperate to steal them should they be disobedient or foolish or...

The more stories I study, the more I begin to suspect that there is only one story, and that we are, all of us, engaged in telling it.

real” world in a fresh and truth-bearing light.

You think that fairytales are not true, but life itself is the most magical and mysterious fairytale.

Träume und Märchen waren ihr eigentlicher Lebensinhalt, dachte ich jetzt. Deshalb hat sie sich auch umgebracht, dachte ich, weil ein Mensch, der nur Träume und Märchen sich zu seinem Lebensinhalt gemacht hat, in dieser Welt...

Fairy tales make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.

My demons always came dressed up in the faces i loved them most and that’s how i got so close to my demons and all dressed up faces disappeared eventually leaving me into nothingness.

Yeah, but what we need are some fighters who know how to take down a wolf. I know three.””If you are going to get the Pigs, you’ll need backup. They’re not to be trifled with.

The God of Imagination lived in fairytales. And the best fairytales made you fall in love. It was while flicking through “Sleeping Beauty” that I met my first love, Ivar. He was a six-year-old bello...

A folktale without a moral is merely a whimsy.

The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons, but children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed.

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

They’ve been lying from the start. From the first time we read the words ‘once upon a time,’ we’re fed the idea that these girls—these gorgeous, demure, singing-with-the-wildlife girls—get a happy ending. And I get...

Cinderella? Snow White? What’s that? An illness?

Who gets to be the judge of reality? If it was deeply felt, believed, spoken about often or altered your life course, then it was real enough. Faith doesn’t get the luxury of all those...

Children played at those stories; they dreamed about them. They took them to heart and acted as if to live inside them.

Still, she stood looking fabulous like a princess should, licking her blood red lips the moment she laid her eyes on the beautiful prince. It was appetite on first sight.

A spell perhaps?” The prince wrinkled his face as though it physically hurt him to think and ask questions.

I will not wear a tulle-tailed dunce cap for anyone or for any reason.

If you want to be a good parent then be a great leader. You should live a life with passion for someone and something. The legacy you leave your children shouldn’t be how you suffered...

The emperor is naked!”The parade stopped. The emperor paused. A hush fell over the crowd, until one quick-thinking peasant shouted:”No, he isn’t. The emperor is merely endorsing a clothing-optional lifestyle!

Her lips were frosted with sugar and faeriedust.

Look at him, lying there. Why should he need me to give him strength–to watch over him, and always be worrying how he’s feeling? Surely he’ll find it himself. Isn’t that what we believe, that...

But I felt like I’d made a journey to the land of fairytales only to find out that the magical world was identical to the real one. Even in fairytales, the sun still burns, sand...

People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

He burst into the house and ate Grandma, an entirely valid course of action for a carnivore such as himself.

There was something familiar but strange about her – Snow White with a suntan. Cinderella in biker boots. Tough and delicate and magical and real all at once.

Never go down to the darkest room. Stay far away from the rotting coffin. If you want to live through the night, let the devil sleep.

Americans live not by facts, but by a lengthy list of myths.

While the archetype of the tinker is generally the whipping person in classical bedtimes stories, this particular individual was a tinker by trade and just happened to be economically disadvantaged.

What do they say about meeting a bear in the woods? Oh right, you shouldn’t. And to make sure you don’t, you should make a lot of noise so that they’ll will know where you...

Aunt Syl must have conveniently stopped reading the childhood fairy tales when the knight left the damsel in distress to pursue a better damsel out of my bedtime routine.

This is the only way that you can hope to survive. Because life… is not a movie. Everyone lies. Good guys lose. And love… does not conquer all.

I met Baba Yaga at the end of childhood – past pigtails and fairytales, but not quite ready to give up on make-believe.

What I corrupted was what is called the truth in favour of a more marvelous world. I could always improve on the facts.[…] in self-defense, I accuse the writers of fairy-tales. Not hunger, not cruelty,...

Snow.

Patience is the virtue that forges great men.

Happily Single” is recognizing that you don’t need or want to be rescued from your life by a handsome prince because your life is pretty awesome, as is.

The sun hitched up her trousers and soldiered on up into the sky. September squinted at it and wondered if the sun here was different than the sun in Nebraska. It seemed gentler, more golden,...

Come closer, my dears, let me give you a warning,Of the fate that befalls those who stay out past morning,In the darkest hours before the dawn,When witches roam and demons spawn,And children die with spirit...