I could not help but wonder, that night and later, why my father would even mention my marrying someone who came from a country that my mother so obviously disliked. I recall wondering that distinctly...
I could not help but notice that in this regard the book, inanimate though it was, cared more for my welfare than any human in the castle.
How could Paolo think the queen and her ilk were my people? I had no more relation to them than a pigeon does to a flock of swans – or a vortex of vultures, which the castle’s denizens better resemble...
And if I didn’t, I’d spend the rest of my life wondering who I could have turned into if only I’d had the guts to try.
A croaking frog would be nice, particularly a frog that retained Florian’s dark eyes. I should keep it in a box and poke it occasionally with a stick; that would be satisfying indeed.
The truth that our futures are so often determined not by some grand design or deliberate strategy but by an ordinary run-of-the-mill head cold.
Sometimes,well,all the time,I can't think of what to say because I'm so dumb and stuff,and then maybe I think of it like five days later.
Everyone I looked at, their whole lives, did exactly what they were supposed to dowithout even questioning it, without even wondering if they coulddo something different.
A princess, (Queen Sophia) would proclaim, requires a graceful and willowy carriage, not the appetite of a swineherd.
With that, I hurled the slipper at him, not caring if I caused his decapitation. (I did not.) Marshaling what little dignity I yet possessed, I stomped down the corridor - challenging indeed with one...
The day of the ball was spent preparing me much as one prepares a goose for Christmas, with the same ultimate effect.
No matter how I prayed, no fairy godmother appeared. No elf or leprechaun or world-weary wizard materialised to provide the secret weapon against my foe. I remained alone in a mouse-infested cell, emp...
Night soil oozed onto my cloak, and I wondered why all my adventures involved foul odour. Why could I not for once frolic in a meadow of flowers, or escape in a hamper of fresh laundry? No, I must end...
I swear, every person I know gets far more satisfaction from doing good deeds than receiving them. Maybe that's the whole point in the end, all of us putting up with good deeds, tolerating them as bes...
Does this smack of magic to you? Because allow me to inform you, my handsome young prince, that this be not enchantment – it be work! With that I hurled my slipper at him, not caring if I caused his d...
Still, I couldn't get over Dad calling those farmers. People might think helping is hard, but really that's the easy part; just look how good it makes people feel. Look how happy all those Red Bend la...
And that's where our conversation went from there, than God, both of us laughing our butts off at the thought of a hoops game between two teams on intravenous fluids. Which makes absolutely no sense a...
Talk Back? That's really what it's called? You're supposed to walk into some church basement and say, 'I'm here to learn how to Talk Back'?
So it was that my life passed from the joyous realm of heaven to the choking and inescapable tortures of hell.
I’d promised myself that I’d really work on talking more, talking about uncomfortable things, because I could see from Brian how well things could work out if you did.