Perhaps you should put your head down.” I knew this was the thing to do, although I’ve never fainted and I don’t intend to.

It's the picnic principle. Things taste better outdoors. And if it's a forbidden thing, so much the better.

Thoughts are strange creatures. They lead you from one thing to another. Sometimes you don’t know how you got from one to the next.

How can something as fragile as a word build the whole world?

My own mask stayed just where it ought. I’ve had lots of practice.

Life and stories are alike in one way: They are full of hollows. The king and queen have no children: They have a child hollow. The girl has a wicked stepmother: She has a mother hollow. In a story, a baby comes along to fill the child hollow. But in life, the hollows continue empty.

Poor Petey. I’d like to say I could almost feel a tender spot for poor Petey, but the truth is I’d rather feel at the tender spot on his head and give it a poke.