... but as has been said, September read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying.

Hats have power. Hats can change you into someone else.

He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself like watercolors.

In his own country, Death can be kind.

...For grace may only be found briefly, and always in the midst of madness.

When little ones say they want to go home, they almost never mean it. They mean they are tired of this particular game and would like to start another.

I will never be without information,' she determined. 'I will do better than my sisters. If a bird or any other beast comes out of that uncanny republic where husbands are grown, I will see him with his skin off before I agree to fall in love.' For this is how Marya Morevna surmised that love was shaped: an agreement, a treaty between two nations that one could either sign or not as they pleased.