Every morning is a battle between the superego and the id, and I am a mere foot soldier with mud and a snooze button on her shield.

Respect me. Be proud, and if you love me, a little afraid, because love so often looks like fear. We are alike. We are alike.

I am selfish. I am cruel. My mate cannot be less than I.

War is not for winning, Masha," sighed Koschei, reading the tracks of supply lines, of pincer strategies, over her shoulder. "It is for surviving.

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

We all just keep moving, September. We keep moving until we stop.

You know, in Fairyland-Above they said that the underworld was full of devils and dragons. But it isn’t so at all! Folk are just folk, wherever you go, and it’s only a nasty sort of person who thinks a body’s a devil just because they come from another country and have different notions. It’s wild and quick and bold down here, but I like wild things and quick things and bold things, too.