“Beautiful building, Phoebe said. Sam nodded. Classical Revival, he said. It was yet another display of his seemingly unending knowledge that both made her proud and made her feel very small. Maybe ...”

“What if things happened to youspecial, magic thingsbecause youd been preparing for them?”

“Phoebe realized how very wrong shed been about this house, this family. It was far darker, more dangerous than the places shed grown up in. In the dingy little apartments her mother rented, everyth...”

“She closed her eyes. Said the four most comforting words she knew: "Once upon a time." An incantation.”

“The world was full of dangers now that she was pregnant: mercury in tuna, hot tubs, beer, secondhand smoke, over-the-counter medicine. Not to mention crazy baby-abducting fairy kings.”

“Oh my God! Sam said again, his voice shaking. Ive given birth to something inhuman, Phoebe thought. A lamprey with row after row of teeth.”

“Tell the story that's been growing in your heart, the characters you can't keep out of your head, the tale story that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes y...”

“I write for the kid in me. . . . Often when Im working on a story, Ill find myself laughing at something my characters have done, or even being surprised at where theyve taken the story. Its as if ...”

“If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another.”