“ Here’s something I bet you don’t know: every time someone writes a story about a dragon a real dragon dies. Something about seeing and being seen something about mirrors that old tune about how a phot… Catherynne M. Valente
“ History is a funny little creature. Do you remember visiting your old Aunt that autumn when the trees shone so very yellow, and how she owned a striped and unsocial cat, quite old and fat and wounded… Catherynne M. Valente
“ A story is a map of the world. A gloriously colored and wonderful map, the sort one often sees framed and hanging on the wall in a study full of plush chairs and stained-glass lamps: painstakingly let… Catherynne M. Valente
“ How many beginnings can a story have, Daddy?""As many as you can eat, my lamb. But only one ending. Or maybe it's the other way around: one beginning and a whole Easter basket of endings.""Papa, don't… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Very well, you do so love rules! I shall make some up for you on the spot, so that my little moppet is not forced to wander the world in a soup of stories without laws. A tale may have exactly three b… Catherynne M. Valente
“ It's only that the answers in most stories are boring because they are supplied by the real world rather than, well, something better. Something more stimulating. Sit down with the Greeks and the Roma… Catherynne M. Valente
“ As you might expect, the geographical location of the capital of Fairyland is fickle and has a rather short temper. I'm afraid the whole thing moves around according to the needs of narrative.'Septemb… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Listen, everything is possible in here. You can burn every spinning wheel in the kingdom. You can cut your hair before he ever gets the chance to climb up. It is possible to decline the beanstalk. You… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Some things a girl has in her to say no to and some things cut her down before she knows she’s gone. Sure, some twiggy, thorny snap in her says: no, this is awry, this is a bent thing, in that place t… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Don't worry, my little lump of rock. Everybody gets a chance to choose. Or else where would irony come from? Catherynne M. Valente
“ Of course not. No one is chosen. Not ever. Not in the real world. You chose to climb out of your window and ride on a leopard. You chose to get a witch’s Spoon back, and to make friends with a wyvern.… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Funny how "question" contains the word "quest" inside it, as though any small question asked is a journey through briars. Catherynne M. Valente
“ Humanity lived many years and ruled the earth, sometimes wisely, sometimes well, but mostly neither. Catherynne M. Valente
“ You get the face you build your whole life, with work and loving and grieving and laughing and frowning. Catherynne M. Valente
“ She was ... unhappy. It was part of her, you could not separate her from it. She was sad the way a horse is strong or a bird flies. Catherynne M. Valente
“ How we would like to argue with September, and tell her that in the waiting lies the pleasure! That we here in the world of sensible folk know how to wait without twisted-up bellies and tapping feet a… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Husbands lie, Masha. I should know; I've eaten my share. That's lesson one. Lesson number two: among the topics about which a husband is most likely to lie are money, drink, black eyes, political affi… Catherynne M. Valente
“ I abandoned her. It's the one capital crime of fatherhood. Mothers can fail a thousand different ways. A father's only job is: do not abandon this child. Catherynne M. Valente
“ ...the villagers had decided that 'practical' meant 'extremely magical and full of interesting objects' and had officially subtitled themselves, Winesap: A Pracktical Towne. Catherynne M. Valente
