“For every once upon a time there must be a story to follow, because if a story doesn't, something else will, and it might not be as harmless as a story.”

“Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon a Time.”

“Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime, I fell in Love in the Library once upon a time.”

“Maybe instead of strings it's stories things are made of, an infinite number of tiny vibrating stories; once upon a time they all were part of one big giant superstory, except it got broken up into a jillion different pieces, that's why no story on its own makes any sense, and so what you have to do in a life is try and weave it back together, my story into your story, our stories into all the other people's we know, until you've got something that to God or whoever might look like a letter, or even a whole word....”

“My whole life, I had thought that my story was, again and again: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and he had to risk everything to keep what he loved. But really, the story was: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and his fear ate him alive.”

“Once upon a time there was a fairy godmother, but the rest of the time there was none. This story is about one of those other times.”