That’s what a map is, you know. Just a memory.

Koschei, Koschei,” she whispered. “What would I have been if I had never seen the birds? I am no one; I am nothing. I am a blank paper on which you and your magic wrote a girl. Just the kind of girl you wanted, all hungry and hurt and needing. A machine for loving you. Nothing in me was not made by you.

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.

Funny how "question" contains the word "quest" inside it, as though any small question asked is a journey through briars.

Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye.

Metamorphosis is the most profound of all acts.

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