You know, in Fairyland-Above they said that the underworld was full of devils and dragons. But it isnโt so at all! Folk are just folk, wherever you go, and itโs only a nasty sort of person who thinks a bodyโs a devil just because they come from another country and have different notions. Itโs wild and quick and bold down here, but I like wild things and quick things and bold things, too.
Catherynne M. ValenteSuch lonely, lost things you find on your way. It would be easier, if you were the only one lost. But lost children always find each other, in the dark, in the cold. It is as though they are magnetized and can only attract their like. How I would like to lead you to brave, stalwart friends who would protect you and play games with dice and teach you delightful songs that have no sad endings. If you would only leave cages locked and turn away from unloved Wyverns, you could stay Heartless.
Catherynne M. ValenteI hope, in years to come, I shall hold my heart up and it will be a pane of clear glass, through which I see all, but nothing is distorted.
Catherynne M. ValenteFairy tales have always been about getting through the worst of everything, the darkest and the deepest and the bloodiest of events. They are about surviving, and what you look like when you emerge from the trial. The reason we keep telling fairy tales over and over, that we need to keep telling them, is that the trials change. So the stories change too, and the heroines and villains and magical objects, to keep them true. Fairy tales are the closets where the world keeps its skeletons.
Catherynne M. Valente