“Oh, why does compassion weaken us?'It doesn't, really ... Somewhere where it all balances out - don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live? - if ...”

“When they finished laughing they were on their way to being not just friends, but the dearest of friends, the sort of friends whose lives are shaped by the friendship.”

“Cats were often familiars to workers of magic because to anyone used to wrestling with self-willed, wayward, devious magic--which was what all magic was--it was rather soothing to have all the same...”

“(There was an idea much beloved and written about by this countrys philosophers that magic had to do with negotiating the balance between earth and air and water; which is to say that things with l...”

“The magic in that country was so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like sticky plaster-dust. (House-cleaners in that country earned unusu...”

“Fairy godmothers?” said the king dubiously. “We’ll have a time getting that past the court council — and the bishop.”

“When I was a little girl I used to read fairy tales. In fairy tales you meet Prince Charming and he's everything you ever wanted. In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is alw...”

“There is the great lesson of 'Beauty and the Beast,' that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.”

“...fairy tales, just a fancy word for lies...”