Real love, after all, was worth the price you paid, however briefly it might last.

I thought you were supposed to be the champion of your people,' I said. I live because I need to do that. For anyone who is left.' Don't you see? No one will be left. Protect them now or there will be no one to protect!' This is a battle that goes on and on. It never ends. You're too young to understand. No! You're too much of a coward to fight.' I was sick of lies and secrets and of battles so old we had to erase who we were to fight back. And still we lost. Still we were tied to posts.

Anyway, the sort of love that will not wait is probably best to pass by

I always felt and still feel that fairy tales have an emotional truth that is so deep that there are few things that really rival them

Some things you cannot wish away or think away. They become part of you when you remember them.

I feel as if when you love a book it becomes a part of you whether you have it on your shelves or not.

Do people choose the art that inspires them — do they think it over, decide they might prefer the fabulous to the real? For me, it was those early readings of fairy tales that made me who I was as a reader and, later on, as a storyteller.