“She moves like beauty, she whispers to us of wind and forestand she tells us stories, such stories that we wake in the night, dreaming dreams of a life long past. she reminds us of what we used to ...”

“None of this was what held Yeva's gaze. Because in the bottom of the valley, straddling the river nestled in the foothills, was a castle.”

“I heard her voice, her stories, her softness as she spoke of her family, and her iron as she spoke of me - I heard her scream, and I moved without thought.”

“Fire cannot hurt us. And yet, when we light her a lantern, there is a moment as we watch the wick flare in the darkness-a moment in which I want to touch the flame. Just to see if I can still be bu...”

“She remembered perching on the sill of her bedroom window with the pane opened a crack so she could let the winter in, and she remembered letting it sting her nose and wash over her until she was s...”

“To make them forget how bad human beings are, they were taught too insistently that bears are good. Instead of being told honestly what humans are and what bears are.”

“Ill rid the world of each one of you, he whispered. Every single one”

“Because inside me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom.. and as hard as I try, I cannot kill it.”

“Love didn't seem like something that could be organized or contained; it should be messy and emotional, like exploding and imploding with someone at the exact same time.”

“It was her favorite story, that she remembers, but she would be hard-pressed to retell it now, faithfully, as it had been told to her. All she could recall were frayed, sleep-watered images of a fo...”

“Some curses fade and leave nothing but the faintest mark, a tea stain on watered silk. There are those that are so malevolent that, upon defeat, explode in a fiery burst of sulfurous flames, burnin...”

“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...”