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

We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on maps are silly.

Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so frightfully strong and tight that you end up bound forever in hopeless knots, even to the shadow of a beast you knew and loved long ago.

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.

Marya Morevna! Don't you know anything? Girls must be very, very careful to care only for ribbons and magazines and wedding rings. They must sweep their hearts clean of anything but kisses and theater and dancing. They must never read Pushkin; they must never say clever things; they must never have sly eyes or wear their hair loose and wander around barefoot, or they will draw his attention!

You can never know how your clock runs. But it does run - and always faster than you think.

Monsters almost always are culture's way of working out their fears.