The future is a messy, motley business, little girl.

Remember this when you are queen,” he whispered hoarsely. “I moved the earth and the water for you.

I want to keep on living forever and watching heroes and fools and knights go up and down, into the world and out. I want to keep being myself and mind the work that minds me. Work is not always a hard thing that looms over your years. Sometimes, work is the gift of the world to the wanting.

I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.

At the snowy summit of all these things, however, is the fact that you simply cannot go about locking your siblings in towers when they misbehave. It is unseemly and betrays a sad lack of creativity.

Temptation likes best those who think they have a natural immunity, for it may laugh all the harder when they succumb.

I believe we have an utterly unique specimen on our hands: a child who listens.