Fairly Tales Quotes

Our stories must be written, shared and communicated. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Fairly tales are myths, and myths are only myths because there's a grain of truth in them. ~ Silas Weir Mitchell

Avoid generalizations. As a fiction writer, I distrust absolute truths, homilies, bromides, sound bites, and also shorthand advice of the sort I'm giving. I like specifics, the longhand version of a story in which it takes four hundred pages to answer a single question about a person's character. Literary writers, unless they are writing fairly tales, learn early never to have characters who are polar opposites, one "good," the other "evil." That's not believable. People are more than just good and evil. Intelligent readers will demand that you not reduce people to such simplistic terms, or resolve situations with "Good always conquers evil," "Might is always right," and so forth. And while such resolutions are common in murder mysteries and action stories, they are feeble in literary fiction, which is supposed to reflect subtle truths about the world. Better to be subtle rather than overbearing, subversive rather than didactic. ~ Amy Tan

I adore fairy stories. And I still have the wistful spirit of a child that listens wide-eyed to the marvellous tales told over and over during long winter evenings. ~ Renee Vivien

But at some point it becomes obvious that, ultimately, the adventure of faith is the most sensible thing to do, and in fact the only thing worth doing. As Sam says toward the end of The Two Towers, no one remembers the tales in which the characters give up and turn back. Great and heroic deeds remain undone if no one leaps into the dark to do them. That's true when it comes to faith, too. You can't play a meaningful role in the great story by playing it safe. Once you hit the road, there is no going back to life as it was before. When Jesus asks His disciples if they will leave him to, Peter says, "Lord to whom will we go?" (verse 68). It's either walk with Jesus, unsafe as it seems sometimes, or go home. ~ Sarah Arthur

One must never judge the writer by the man; but one may fairly judge the man by the writer. ~ Louis Kronenberger

I shook my head. "I thought you had a 'No princesses' rule."

"Rules are made to be broken," said Grimm.

Ari sat back in the chair, her eyes closed.

"Of course, young lady, there's the matter of how we sign our contracts."

"Not gonna happen." Ari threw a pen at the mirror for emphasis. ~ J.C. Nelson

Maybe if more of our adolescents had been brought up on fairy tales, they would (unconsciously) remain aware of the fact that their conflict is not with the adult world, or society, but really only with their parents. Further, threatening as the parent may seem at some time, it is always the child who wins out in the long ~ Bruno Bettelheim

Don't talk me about religion! Don't talk me about tales for children! Be serious! Trust science, because only the science can save you! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

The United States is guilty. We're not treating people fairly. We're not treating people with dignity. Building a wall is an affront and an insult, and we have no right. ~ Rush Limbaugh

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered. ~ Rufus Wainwright

Bob had been caught by the white death, the threat of which hung over every male black in the South. I had heard whispered tales of black boys having sex relations with white prostitutes in the hotels in town, but I had never paid any close attention to them; now those tales came home to me in the form of the death of a man I knew. I did not search for a job that day; I returned home ~ Richard Wright

Olive Wellwood had the feeling writers often have when told perfect tales for fictions, that there was too much fact, too little space for the necessary insertion of inventions, which would here appear to be lies. ~ A.S. Byatt

Despite all the shit we've been through, we still fall in love and have dreams. Even living the way we are, we survivors are fairly happy. Incredible, but true. Our will to live is so strong. ~ Manel Loureiro

The misunderstandings - or, what really bothers me are the intentional misrepresentations of the facts, which take place on a fairly regular basis. To think that we, people who are involved in counterterrorism, do not care about civilian casualties or deaths or injuries, is just totally, totally wrong. ~ John O. Brennan

If you went to live in the Himalayas and everyone was lovely there, I'm sure it would be fairly easy to be a spiritual master. ~ Marianne Williamson

For instance, I'm always fascinated to see whether, given the kind of fairly known and established form called popular music, whether there is some magic combination that nobody has hit upon before. ~ Brian Eno

I become ocean, mercury, silver
shimmers, fairy tales, fascinated. ~ Helene Cardona

On the whole, I think the Darwinian theory of evolution, at least with the additional insights of modern genetics, gives us a fairly coherent account of the evolution of human life on earth. At the same time, I believe that karma can have a central role in understanding the origination of what Buddhism calls "sentience," through the media of energy and consciousness. ~ Dalai Lama XIV

Sooner or later, life teaches us to forgive. In my case, life taught me that fairly early on, but that doesn't matter. I'm prepared to forgive the enemy, I'm prepared to forgive everyone, just so that I can return to my own home. I hope that this will happen one day and that the enemy will understand my desire for all of us to live in peace, happiness, friendship and love, because that is the essence of human life. 'Are ~ Atka Reid

Captain, I'm fairly unique among artificial intelligences. I am FREE.
I work for you because I want to.
I fly your ship for you because I enjoy it.
I am compelled to accept orders only by my conscience.
This makes me an equal with the rest of your troops. They aren't hard-wired to obey you, yet they'll follow you to the ends of the Universe. ~ Howard Tayler

It's a technical, fairly difficult job that has no particular political connotations, so I doubt there are any big campaign contributors dying to be on the Fed. And remember, it doesn't pay very well, certainly by Republican standards. ~ Alice Rivlin

Holmes paused. "No lecture?"
Leander - because it had to be Leander - laughed. "You've done worse things, and anyway, it's fairly clear you aren't actually having sex. This may be indelicate, but those sheets aren't hardly wrinkled enough. So I'm not quite sure what I should be lecturing you on."
That was it. I was going to pass a law against people making deductions before lunch. ~ Brittany Cavallaro

It drives me mental, every time I think of the situation and just how much Ami really meant to me, after the fact. Ah, but it's fairly obvious that idiots, like me, are always going to be the very last ones to figure it all out! It kills me most that Ami was the only one who could ever see the real me, she was the one who always came along and saved me from myself. She had that charm without ever realizing it, I think. ~ Andrew James Pritchard

One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views, fairy tales, instead of the customary pair theory/observation. This impression would certainly be mistaken. My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is rather to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits. ~ Paul Feyerabend

A few hours' mountain climbing make of a rogue and a saint two fairly equal creatures. Tiredness is the shortest path to equality and fraternity - and sleep finally adds to them liberty. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Think I none so simple would say that Aesop lied in the tales of his beasts: for who thinks that Aesop writ it for actually true were well worthy to have his name chronicled among the beasts he writeth of. ~ Philip Sidney

I'm a culture hero," he said. "We do the same shit gods do, we just screw up more and nobody worships us. They tell stories about us, but they tell the ones that make us look bad along with the ones where we came out fairly okay. ~ Neil Gaiman

Please tell a story about a girl who gets away."
I would, even if I had to adapt one, even if I had to make one up just for her. "Gets away from what, though?"
"From her fairy godmother. From the happy ending that isn't really happy at all. Please have her get out and run off the page altogether, to somewhere secret where words like 'happy' and 'good' will never find her."
"You don't want her to be happy and good?"
"I'm not sure what's really meant by happy and good. I would like her to be free. Now. Please begin. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

We don't swim for the attention. We don't swim to be rock stars. There is something beautiful about being in an anonymous sport and being fairly anonymous. It enables you do something you love without any of the other effects. ~ Aaron Peirsol

All of my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and emotions have no validity or significance in the cosmos-at-large. ~ H.P. Lovecraft

If you're going to make a lot of films about a particular group of animals, you might as well pick one that's fairly common. And octopus are: they live in all the oceans. They also live deep. And I can't say octopus are responsible for my really strong interest in getting in subs and going deep, but whatever the case, I like that. ~ Mike DeGruy

They're telling me that fairy tales are for learning how to slay dragons. But I'm telling them that I would never slay a dragon. I will mount the backs of dragons, I will fly with them. And if that doesn't happen in fairy tales, well then, I'll write my own. ~ C. JoyBell C.

During the meal Schmendrick told stories of his life as an errant enchanter, filling it with kings and dragons and noble ladies. He was not lying, merely organizing events more sensibly, and so his tales had a taste of truth even to the canny Councilmen. ~ Peter S. Beagle

I HAVE no patience with the hypothesis occasionally expressed, and often implied, especially in tales written to teach children to be good, that babies are born pretty much alike, and that the sole agencies in creating differences between boy and boy, and man and man, are steady application and moral effort. It is in the most unqualified manner that I object to pretensions of natural equality. The experiences of the nursery, the school, the University, and of professional careers, are a chain of proofs to the contrary. ~ Francis Galton

..."we have been fed for so many generations on tales of the Wolf's ferocity, treachery, rapacity, cowardice, and strength" that most people have a "wholly wrong picture of this most interesting animal. ~ Bruce Hampton

False enthusiasm does not come easily to six-year-olds ... although, sad to say, it's a skill most of us learn fairly rapidly. ~ Stephen King

In terms of identity? I'm a commercial fantasy writer, looking to entertain my audience with fantastical tales that mix history with myth and magic. That's something humans have been doing for a very long time, and I like being part of a long tradition of storytelling, whether that's ancient tales shared around a campfire or modern podcasts.
...
I'm currently editing a scene that involves winged lions and smoke-conjured armor, so I'm not certain I'm the best writer to ask about truth. But that being said, words and stories have great power and I think setting a scene that pulls from the real world but is set in a fictional one can cause readers to reassess and question things in a way they might not have otherwise. ~ S.A. Chakraborty

No, In fairy tales When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says 'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast But I remain the same, up to the last! ~ Edmond Rostand

Set screamed something in Ancient Egyptian. I was fairly sure it wasn't a compliment.
"I will rend your limbs from their sockets!" he shouted. "I will - "
"Die?" Carter suggested. ~ Rick Riordan

He had a sort of dry musty smell, like a fairly clean Chinaman. ~ Raymond Chandler

Noah turned to face his younger sister, arching one brow to a fairly smug height. Lenga lifted a brow back at him, giving him a delicate smattering of applause.
"And I was afraid you would never learn the art of diplomacy," she remarked, her lips twitching with her humor. "It merely took you the entire two and a half centuries of my life. Longer, actually. You had a few centuries' head start."
"Funny how you seem to recall the fact that I am far older than you only when it suits your arguments, my sister," he taunted her, reaching to tug on her hair as he had been doing since her childhood.
"Well, I can say with all honesty that this is the first time I have ever seen you forgo a good argument with Hannah, opting for peace instead. I was beginning to wonder if you were my brother at all. Perhaps some imposter . . ."
"Legna, be careful. You are speaking words of treason," he teased her, tugging her hair once more, making her turn around to swat at his hand.
"I don't know how you convinced the entire Council that you were mature enough to be King, Noah! You are such a child!" She twisted her body so he couldn't grab at her hair again. "And I swear, if you pull my hair once more like some sort of schoolyard bully, I am going to put you to sleep and shave you bald!"
Noah immediately raised his hands in acquiescence, laughing as Legna flushed in exasperation. For all her grace and ladylike ways, Noah's little sister was quite capable of making good on ~ Jacquelyn Frank

It had been fun to ride the fairy tale of Baz Acker actually giving a shit about him, but he knew firsthand fairy tales were a lot more Grimm brothers and much less Walt Disney. ~ Heidi Cullinan