“skin white as snow, hair black as night...”

“My skin's too white." she said.Says who, Snow White?" he said, touching her cheek lightly with one hand.”

“It was Night. In most places, Night is a time for sleep, for calm, and for mystery. But not in New York City, where many things conspired every evening to murder the night.”

“She remembered that once, when she was a little girl, she had seen a pretty young woman with golden hair down to her knees in a long flowered dress, and had said to her, without thinking, "Are you a princess?" The girl had laughed very kindly at her and asked her what her name was. Blanche remembered going away from her, led by her mother's hand, thinking to herself that the girl really was a princess, but in disguise. And she had resolved that someday, she would dress as though she were a princess in disguise.”

“She hurried off, leaving Rose feeling like the tiny soap suds left over from a burst bubble.”

“Evil things often look beautiful. But that's because they've stolen the beauty from the good.... Evil isn't beautiful on its own.”

“Some of them are okay, but the popular girls like to pick on my sister, and almost all the guys are gross. I don't know why guys are like that. Do you?”