“Fairy tales are experienced by their hearers and readers, not as realistic, but as symbolic poetry.”

“A fairy tale...on the other hand, demands of the reader total surrender; so long as he is in its world, there must be for him no other.”

“Though now we think of fairy tales as stories intended for very young children, this is a relatively modern idea. In the oral tradition, magical stories were enjoyed by listeners young and old alike, while literary fairy tales (including most of the tales that are best known today) were published primarily for adult readers until the 19th century.”

“Life has no fairy-tale endings. But it has fairy tale moments.”

“A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or rather the poetry behind the words, for the words themselves are mere symbols—spring to life, and we have a resurrection of the word.”

“Two forces create eternity – a fairy tale and a dream from the fairy tale.”