The really important thing to be was yourself, just as hard as you could.

I had to persuade a dog to swallow a pill. I twittered for advice and I got suggestion after suggestion. Most of them didn't work. 'Put the pill in the sausage.' No - that doesn't work. 'Cheese.' No. Then someone said: 'You wrap it in butter and it will slide down.' I tried it and it worked! And I'd learnt how to give a pill to a dog through the magic of Twitter.

All that I did," she said, "everything I tried to do. All for nothing." Nothing is done entirely for nothing, said the fox of dreams. Nothing is wasted. You are older, and you have made decisions, and you are not the fox you were yesterday. Take what you have learned, and move on.

You can always cheat an honest man, but it takes more work.

The truth is, it's not the idea, it's never the idea, it's always what you do with it.

Without dreams, there could be no despair.

Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams