Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

"This is what comes of having a heart, even a very small and young one. It causes no end of trouble, and that’s the truth."

"For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really is all right, and what went before is mended. The other kind of forgiveness you practice because someone needs desperately to be forgiven, or because you need just as badly to forgive them, for a heart can grab hold of old wounds and go sour as milk over them."

"Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so frightfully strong and tight that you end up bound forever in hopeless knots, even to the shadow of a beast you knew and loved long ago."