“Not a beauty queen. Not one of those. You know the ones. She was real.”

“She is here amongst us, but she is not alone,” one of the pixie dust angels told the queen of the woods.“And?” the queen demanded.“She is with some boy. Both look strange, if you ask me.”“Strange, how?” the queen asked.“Strange. You know they don’t look as we do.” “How do they look?” The queen turned and looked at the pixie angel with her purple eye that sat in the middle of her forehead. “I don’t know. They have things like the little people in Vanduesa.”“What things might you be referring to?” the queen’s voice rose impatiently. “You know those things that the little people get around with.” The queen laughed, revealing yellowing teeth. “Oh, the things the little people in Vanduesa refer to as legs.”“That’s it.” The pixie angel did an excited flip, and then nodded her head.”

“Franny’s Hollywood name, her acting name, is one you know. This is our family’s story, and it’s inappropriate for me to use Franny’s stage name – but I know that you know her. Franny is the one you always desire. She is the best one, even when she’s the villain; she always the real hero, even when she dies, even when she dies for love – or worse, for war. She’s the most beautiful, the most unapproachable, but the most vulnerable too, somehow – and the toughest. (She’s why you go to the movie, or why you stay.)”

“There were many beautiful vipers in those days and she was one of them. ("Eveline's Visitant")”

“She was--I keep using the past tense; I ought to say she is--one of those people who, at first sight, look plain, are quiet, unassertive, unmemorable even. But who, when they start to talk and you get to know them, become more and more attractive and impressive, and you see that in fact they are beautiful. Not conventionally beautiful, not celebrity beautiful, but beautiful all through.”

“Why, if one were Queen, would one ever want to marry? If one is ruler, is it not better to both King and Queen? That is exactly what a woman can do if she remains without a mate.”