Your attitude is perhaps a little unnecessarily rigorous," suggested Jack.

...like a grain of sand that gets into an oyster's shell. What if the grain doesn't want to become a pearl? Is it ever asked to climb out quietly and take up its old position as a bit of ocean floor?

He didn't look insane or inhuman. He did look uncooperative.

I advise those who want to become writers to study veterinary medicine, which is easier. You don't want to be a writer unless you have no choice - and if you have no choice, good luck to you.

We kings do develop a certain ability to recognize objects under our noses.

She laughed at him then, because he sounded like a small boy, not like a very large grown-up Beast with a voice so deep it made the hair on the back of your neck stir when you heard it. 'But vegetables are good for you,' she said, and added caressingly, 'They make you grow up big and strong.' He smiled, showing a great many teeth. 'You see why I wish to eat no more vegetables.

But it was equally clear to her that this was her fate, that she had called its name and it had come to her, and she could do nothing now but own it.