“His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. To be born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.”

“Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.”

“It doesn't matter if you're born in a duck yard, so long as you are hatched from a swan's egg!”

“If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it could be a really ugly swan.”

“I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.”

“the cuckoo bird," she said, "You see, cuckoos are parasites. THey lay their eggs in in other birds' nests. Whhen the egg hatches, the baby cuckoopushes the other birds out of the nest. THe poor parent birds work to death trying to find enough food to feed the enormous cuckoo child who has murdered their babies and taken their places.'Enormous?' said Jace. 'Did you just call me fat?'It was an analogy.'I am not fat.”