I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.

Some stories stayed with you even when you wanted to forget them.

What people read revealed so much about them that she considered our card catalog a treasure house of privileged secrets; each card contained the map of an individual’s soul.

Every fairy tale had a bloody lining. Every one had teeth and claws.

He has the ability to catch someone by the way that he looks at her, and make her wish he would go on looking.

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.

In a world of sorrow, love was an act of will. All you needed were the right ingredients.