If you have an ancestor who is a Benedictine monk, we would rather not know it.

Wishing is the beginning of imagination. They practice wishing when they are young things, and then -when they have grown - they have a developed imagination. Which can do some harm - greed, that kind of thing - but more often does them some good. They can imagine that things might be different. Might be other than they seem. Could be better.

It's unbecoming," she agreed. "A perfect word for my new life. Unbecoming. I who have always been unbecoming am becoming un.

It isn’t hard to find evil in this world. Evil is always more easily imagined than good, somehow.

The moon rose, an opalescent goddess tipping light from her harsh maternal scimitar.

I do love to sing. Had I a longer set of thigh bones and a sweeter voice, I should have loved to be a performer.

We live in our tales of ourselves, she thought, and ignore as best we can the contradictions, and the lapses, and the abrasions of plot against our mortal souls.