She’s gone on that long road into adulthood from which none of us returns.
It is winter now,and the roses are blooming again,their petals bright against the snow.My father died last April;my sisters no longer write,except at the turning of the year,content with their fine ho...
Could it be that humans had an infinite capacity to make themselves at home in the direst of situations? Or did one just adjust expectations downward, so as to be able to get through each day?
And for adults, the world of fantasy books returns to us the great words of power which, in order to be tamed, we have excised from our adult vocabularies. These words are the pornography of innocence...
A good story is [a] kind of irritant. You read it, then you cannot stop thinking about it. Eventually, your mind and heart encyst about it, and what occurs is a pearl of the soul.
A child who can love the oddities of a fantasy book cannot possibly be xenophobic as an adult. What is a different color, a different culture, a different tongue for a child who has already mastered E...
Words shouldn’t be dirty or cleanBut definitely sweet,On the tongue, in the mind.
Why would anyone want to be God? he asked. It's a terrible occupation.
The Baba gives me paper, and a pen that sputters ink. Write, she says, tell the true Though you may have to lie to do it.
Once upon a time, Gemma began, the older two girls whispering the opening with her, which is all times and no times but not the very best of times,there was a castle. And in it lived a king who wanted...
In fantasy stories we learn to understand the differences of others, we learn compassion for those things we cannot fathom, we learn the importance of keeping our sense of wonder. The strange worlds t...
He knew he was not a brave man, but he had a great sense of drama. In some circumstances it could seem the same. Forcing
Even her powders and face paint couldn't disguise the age lines and gripe lines that ran as deep as the railway tracks some said were bound to cross our mountain any day so.
A mist still lay all about the walls and floors, hovering like a last breath on the lips of all the sleepers. As he walked through the castle, he marveled at how many lay asleep: the good people, the...
Wanting to die and dying, she found were two separate things.
The minute they were in the hall, he whispered to his father, He’s a pig. Not kosher, Papa added, and they both chuckled.
We all have such stories. It is a brutal arithmetic. But I - I am alive. You are alive. As long as we breathe, we can see and hear. As long as we can remember, all those gone before are alive inside u...
WHEN I’M GOOD, I’M VERY GOOD. BUT WHEN I’M BAD, I’M BETTER.—Mae West in I’m No Angel
The others are all common mouths chattering, empty heads like wooden whistles blowing common tunes.
The great archetypal stories provide a framework or model for an individual's belief system. They are, in Isak Dinesen's marvelous expression, 'a serious statement of our existence.' The stories and t...