The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.

The Specters feast as vampires feast on blood, but the Specters’ food is attention. A conscious and informed interest in the world. The immaturity of children is less attractive to them.

Tell him, we are not devils but we have friends who are.

People should decide on the books' meanings for themselves. They'll find a story that attacks such things as cruelty, oppression, intolerance, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and celebrates love, kindness, open-mindedness, tolerance, curiosity, human intelligence.

But think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it.

She longed for cutlasses, pistols, and brandy; she had to make do with coffee, and pencils, and verbs.

I'm with the Grimms on this: stories for young and old. You can't characterize them any better than that.