Fairytales Quotes

What's in a fairytale? Shadows and light, good and true, vile and ugly, frightening and comforting, heroes and heroines who know that belief in their own magic spurs them on. It is their own faith and courage as they reach for an unwritten Destiny that grants their deepest hopes and makes dreams, as if by magic, come true. ~ Suzy Davies

Cinderella? Snow White? What's that? An illness? ~ J.K. Rowling

Yeah, but what we need are some fighters who know how to take down a wolf. I know three."

"If you are going to get the Pigs, you'll need backup. They're not to be trifled with. ~ K.M. Randall

I don't know a kid who grew up in the '90s who wasn't obsessed with Disney, and I guess I never grew out of that phase, honestly. It's not just Disney: it's anything that has to do with fairytales for me. I think I just have Peter Pan Syndrome or something. ~ Todrick Hall

Fairytales by nature only talk about the victors. The survivors. Nobody speaks about what happens to those who failed, except in the abstract: as cautionary tales to guide others onto the path to success. How many brave knights fell to the dragon before he was slayed by the noble prince? How many children burned to a crisp and eaten before the wicked witch received her due? These stories are lost, but the lesson behind them is not: it is not enough to be merely pure and good. ~ Nenia Campbell

Like a simple wildflower, standing strong through rain, wind and hail, love, finally, had its way, and it was content. ~ Ella Rose Carlos

Yes, I can speak a bit and I can read and write in Russian. I learned it from my grandmother who raised me with all the Russian fairytales. ~ Carine Roitfeld

To me God's voice and inspiration is stronger, of greater importance and authority than that of any fairy or any other spirit like creature from above or below earth. My Spirit Tales are stories based on truth and inspired by His writings.
Stories about YHWH and His great wonderful acts are definitely not fairytales but Spirit Tales. ~ Sipporah Joseph

Honestly, I think there's a cycle to the popularity of fantasy and fairytales that usually coincides with times of unrest or hardship in our own world. By retelling these legends or immersing ourselves in fantasy realms, we can safely explore the very real, very day-to-day darkness of our own lives. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
'Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy ~ Christina Rossetti

After all, in fairy tales, there was only one thing to do. In every story with a long sleep and a waking in it. An easy thing, a pretty thing. Standard currency. ~ Catherynne M Valente

Each evening the night swallowed the sun and gave the raven the sun's energy. He stored this power in his wings, tinged with the blue of Alaskan skies. ~ Suzy Davies

Anyone who still wants to experience fairytales these days can't afford to dither when it comes to using their brains. ~ Robert Musil

But I felt like I'd made a journey to the land of fairytales only to find out that the magical world was identical to the real one. Even in fairytales, the sun still burns, sand still works its way into your bikini bottoms, and the diner next door to your motel still scorches toast. ~ Holly Schindler

There was no hatred in your heart," I whispered. "That you existed is proof that we were wrong. We had no right to take your world from you, Walter. I hope your fairytales are true. I hope you find your Gladdie. ~ Stephenie Meyer

If you put a much older woman in 'Doctor Who,' they can identify with it. I think it's quite an interesting concept, and if you remember things like 'Grimm's Fairytales,' the older woman is often the villainess, often the terrifying figure - why I do not know, but often she is. I think it's an idea to be exploited. ~ Kate O'Mara

Dear Reader,
These stories, fables and memories are all true in one way or
another.
These stories are about you and me.
These stories feature:
- girls who kill
- girls who are killed
- girls who are alive
- and girls who are otherwise. ~ Allyse Near

You're my princess, right? You were always going to be my princess, no matter what you were born, no matter who your dad married. ~ Marissa Meyer

They've been lying from the start. From the first time we read the words 'once upon a time,' we're fed the idea that these girls - these gorgeous, demure, singing-with-the-wildlife girls - get a happy ending. And I get it. Poor thing had to do some chores around the house, fine. But the idea that she needs a magic old lady to come down and skim off the dirt so the prince will see her beauty? That's ridiculous. Maybe she should have been working on her lockpicking skills instead of serenading squirrels. She could have busted out, hitched a ride to the castle, and impressed the prince with her safe-cracking prowess. Sorry, magic-fairy lady. She didn't need your help. ~ Kelsey Macke

I learned a lot, when I was a child, from novels and stories, even fairytales have some point to them--the good ones. The thing that impressed me most forcibly was this: the villains went to work with their brains and always accomplished something. To be sure they were "foiled" in the end, but that was by some special interposition of Providence, not by any equal exertion of intellect on the part of the good people. The heroes and middle ones were mostly very stupid. If bad things happened, they practised patience, endurance, resignation, and similar virtues; if good things happened they practised modesty and magnanimity and virtues like that, but it never seemed to occur to any of them to make things move their way. Whatever the villains planned for them to do, they did, like sheep. The same old combinations of circumstances would be worked off on them in book after book--and they always tumbled.

It used to worry me as a discord worries a musician. Hadn't they ever read anything? Couldn't they learn anything from what they read--ever? It appeared not. And it seemed to me, even as a very little child, that what we wanted was good people with brains, not just negative, passive, good people, but positive, active ones, who gave their minds to it.

"A good villain. That's what we need!" I said to myself. "Why don't they write about them? Aren't there ever any?"

I never found any in all my beloved story books, or in real life. And gradually, I made ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Ishbel read maps like storybooks. She was getting off the island, and no one was going to stop her. That was all just romance, just fairytales, because anyone can leave the island. Since they built the bridge, leaving should be as easy as sticking your keys in the car ignition. But leaving is never easy. ~ Kirsty Logan

A folktale without a moral is merely a whimsy. ~ Stephen Sondheim

But he's mad, completely mad, and he turns his wives into golems. He needs killing, not negotiation. ~ T. Kingfisher

Fairytales are bullshit, I snapped, using the same line as he'd used on me, but I meant it. After an imperfect summer with Zack, with highs and lows and everything in between, I no longer wanted the fairytale. It wasn't real. ~ Monica Alexander

She was everywhere. She was screaming in her tortured body. She was watching from cameras in every room. She was the false weather system and the storage devices. She was the gate keeper, throwing six shirts over her swan-brothers necks...opening six doors for her brothers to step through as young men, though their bodies were long gone, used up by the organ banks of the upper castes.

A Lamentation of Swans ~ J.A. Ironside

It's just how it is. Not everybody was born to be inherently 'good'. The world is going to be filled with different characters, different flavours, different levels of respectability and whatnot, and Louis just so happens to be on the lower ranks. He's not good, he's not brave, and he's not out to save anyone except himself. Even fairytales have their villains - it's a part of life. And it's always been that way. Louis' always been a bit harsher around the edges. He certainly isn't going to be winning any "Humanitarian of the Year" awards, that's for sure. And he doesn't mind it so much, being thoroughly unaffected by anything and everything and totally removed from his peers and their very trivial lives. Because he's not like the rest of them. That's the thing. They're all the fucking same. With their money and their uppity attitudes and twattiness and their preconceived notions and recycled sentences that disappear as quickly as they come. The same. ~ Velvetoscar

I like to read fairytales. They make my imagination go wild, and I wander in fairyland. ~ Debasish Mridha

Fairytales are full of impossible tasks. ~ A.E. Stallings

Maybe in fairytales you're only as old as you feel, but here in L. A. you're every second as old as your pores. ~ Lois Greiman

He burst into the house and ate Grandma, an entirely valid course of action for a carnivore such as himself. ~ James Finn Garner

The God of Imagination lived in fairytales. And the best fairytales made you fall in love. It was while flicking through "Sleeping Beauty" that I met my first love, Ivar. He was a six-year-old bello ragazzo with blond hair and eyebrows. He had bomb-blue eyes and his two front teeth were missing.
The road to Happily Ever After, however, was paved with political barbed wire. Three things stood in my way.
1. The object of my affection didn't know he was the object of my affection.
2. The object of my affection preferred Action Man to Princess Aurora.
3. The object of my affection was a boy and I wasn't allowed to love a boy. ~ Diriye Osman

It is all very well to say that all princesses are good and beautiful and charming; but this is usually a determined optimism on everybody's part rather than the truth. After all, if a girl is a princess, she is undeniably a princess, and the best must be made of it; and how much pleasanter it would be if she were good and beautiful. There's always hope that if enough people believe as though she is, a little of it will rub off. ~ Robin McKinley

Maybe princes aren't real," Sada said. Her eyes were crafty and sad at the same time. "But monsters are." She opened her mouth wide and showed Azhar the wildflowers sitting on her tongue. ~ Mercedes M. Yardley

There was something familiar but strange about her - Snow White with a suntan. Cinderella in biker boots. Tough and delicate and magical and real all at once. ~ Allyse Near

The more stories I study, the more I begin to suspect that there is only one story, and that we are, all of us, engaged in telling it. ~ J. Aleksandr Wootton

I think what's fun about the fairytales is just seeing what everybody interprets them as, which comes from the different directors and what they want to do with them. ~ Colleen Atwood

And somehow,
you still
genuinley think
that magic does not exist,
that fairytales aren't real,

that the way people
find each other
at just the right time
at just the right moment
isn't the most powerful sorcery. ~ Nikita Gill

It's time to put away our fairytales, all of them, and assume our responsibilities, the adult responsibilities that begin with adult knowledge. Our planet needs us. She needs us to think like healers and act like warriors. And if you think that's a contradiction, then get out of the way. ~ Lierre Keith

What's wonderful about Into The Woods is that you have a combination of all the most famous fairytales in this one story. ~ Emily Blunt

As a reader, coming to my reading as a writer immersed in fairytales, I can't help but notice in so many stories, plays, poems that I read, the sort of breadcrumbs of fairytale techniques, so I'm very excited when I notice that. ~ Kate Bernheimer

Maybe there weren't fairytales, or dreams didn't often really come true, but this moment felt very close. As close as it gets to perfect in an imperfect world. ~ Lee Woodruff

On just a personal level, since I was little, I've loved fairytales, especially this one, because it is about what goes into making a beast a beast. Do you start as a beast? Do you turn into a beast because of the way that people treat you? I think it's something that is really universal and hit a chord with me when I was little, and so, hopefully we can explore some of that. ~ Brian Wayne Peterson

It wasn't perfect, none of
it.
But it was a fairytale.
And people needed to believe in
fairytales. Even flawed ones.
Maybe especially flawed ones.
And they needed to believe always. ~ Kristen Ashley

I don't want to be a Princess," she said finally. "You can't make me be one." She knew very well what became of Princesses, as Princesses often get books written about them. Either terrible things happened to them, such as kidnappings and curses and pricking fingers and getting poisoned and locked up in towers, or else they just waited around till the Prince finished with the story and got around to marrying her. Either way, September wanted nothing to do with Princessing. ~ Catherynne M Valente

West Bank fairytales is a magical entrance to the world of Penina Mezei's world where trees tell stories from Penina's acts and events from her life. ~ Penina Mezei

And that's the moment when you realize that hopes and dreams are as fucked up as fairytales. ~ E.K. Blair

Fairy-child, if only you should take my hand, I would show you things beyond your wildest dreams." My expression makes him laugh. "What's that from?"

"Some book I read."

"I should have known." I pause. "Did she follow?"

"How could she resist? Of course, she ended up devoured. ~ Kristen Hubbard

I've loved fairytales, folklore and mythology since I was a small child, and I think it was inevitable that they would influence my style and my development of stories. ~ Juliet Marillier

In fairytales, when the mask came off, the handsome prince still loved the girl, no matter what -and that alone would turn her into a princess. ~ Jodi Picoult

His face was a ghost story: graveyard eyes, cheekbones as sharp as urban legends, a sealed-coffin mouth. ~ Allyse Near

You think that fairytales are not true, but life itself is the most magical and mysterious fairytale. ~ Debasish Mridha

Oh my dear from a distant fantasy land! I love to be in your dreams as a fairy of love with wings of flowers and golden glowing flowing hair. ~ Debasish Mridha

If you read fairy tales carefully, you'll notice they are mostly about people who aren't heroes. They don't have special powers, or gifts. Often they are despised as stupid, They are bullied, beaten up, robbed, starved. But they find they are stronger than their misfortunes. ~ Amanda Craig

and to be the queen she wanted me to be." He kissed the side of her head. "Sweetie, you are better than any queen. You're a freedom fighter for our people, and if your Darling is the king you think him to be, you will live to be an empress." "Then I shall be an empress. You will see." Ture smiled at the sincerity of her tone. How she could still believe in fairytales after everything life had tossed in her face, he had no idea. "Fine then. Just make sure when you're empress, you find a king for me." "I will." Ture ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

My brave husband came back from fighting the Turks and brought me a robe of silk and a necklace of human teeth. He sat up at night by his hearth telling tales of battle. Apparently the Turks are ten times more ferocious and fearless than the Scots. 'Perhaps we should invite them here to drive the Scots back,' I suggested, and he laughed, but he didn't kiss me. That's when I learned the truth about scars. A man with a battle scar is a veteran, a hero, given an honoured place at the fire. Small boys gaze up fascinated, dreaming of winning such badges of courage. Maids caress his thighs with their buttocks as they bend over to mull his ale. Women cluck and cosset, and if in time other men grow a little weary of that tale of honour, then they call for his cup to be filled again and again until he is fuddled and dozes quietly in the warmth of the embers.

But a scarred woman is not encouraged to tell her story. Boys jeer and mothers cross themselves. Pregnant women will not come close for fear that if they look upon such a sight, the infant in their belly will be marked. You've heard of the tales of Beauty and the Beast no doubt. How a fair maid falls in love with a monster and sees the beauty of his soul beneath the hideous visage. But you've never heard the tale of the handsome man falling for the monstrous woman and finding joy in her love, because it doesn't happen, not even in fairytales. The truth is that the scarred woman's husband buys her a good thick veil and ~ Karen Maitland

If I have a choice, I'd rather believe in our own fairytales than in their fabrications. ~ Jen Minkman

I find that you're drawn to certain stories, and there's something about fairytales that have deep roots. They connect really deeply to you, and those are the stories that I find myself drawn to. I love characters that believe the impossible is possible. ~ Glen Keane

Khattam-Shud,' he said slowly, 'is the Arch-Enemy of all Stories, even of language itself. He is the Prince of Silence and the Foe of Speech. And because everything ends, because dreams end, stories end, life ends, at the finish of everything we use his name. "It's finished," we tell one another, "it's over. Khattam-Shud: The End. ~ Salman Rushdie

If you have never met a woman that would never give up, then you have never met a woman that has seen miracles. ~ Shannon L. Alder

Children played at those stories; they dreamed about them. They took them to heart and acted as if to live inside them. ~ Gregory Maguire

I pray, before I die, that I receive the power to believe in fairytales again, Oh' how I would love to laugh and know that God laughed with me. ~ Tonny K. Brown

When your mind wants to bolt, but your heart hangs on, it is because you don't know with absolute certainty what the truth is. When you waste so much time on something that you want to believe is true, you begin to overthink things. Eventually, something obvious becomes twisted into something absurd, which keeps us from believing a simpler answer. Over time, you believe your own lies and fantasies to shield yourself from hurt, when following what is logical would have been the quickest way to healing. It is through your own self-imposed delusions that you lose your perspective. The world then becomes different to you when in fact you are different. Why? Because your own ego gets in the way. Everyone wants to feel special. Everyone wants to have faith in others. Everyone wants to believe in fairytales, happy endings and have all bad interactions with others explained. It is easier to sit in denial with your delusions and pray God will intervene, not realizing he has. He gave you commonsense and intuition, but you didn't like how it made you feel. This is what true mental illness really is: Following your gut instinct through hell because you want to prove you are right, either to yourself or others. You sacrifice choosing to do right, in order to avoid pain. However, you don't realize that you have been in pain for a really long time and believed this was how happiness felt. ~ Shannon L. Alder

Leonora is the grownups' version of Cinderella. She doesn't take crap from any ugly stepsisters. She doesn't sit indoors waiting to be rescued by prince charming. Oh, no, she rescues prince charming, Florestan, who's locked up in a dungeon by his archenemy, Pizarro. Cinderella was fun when we were little girls, played with dolls and believed in passive fairytales. Now that we're grown women who play with toys, it's only fit to believe in active fairytales. ~ Luella Christie

Being in love isn't always the fairytale we want it to be, but guess what? Fairytales aren't real. Love is, or it can be, if you meet its challenges head on. And being less than honest with someone you love is the worst possible thing you can do. ~ Carol Lynne

...your heart spoke for you. You gave up everything for me. ~ Camilla Isley

Your mind is your spirit; do not seek any other hidden soul inside you! All is in the brain! The depiction of a spirit rising to the sky is no more real than a medieval Scandinavian fairytales! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

The emperor is naked!"
The parade stopped. The emperor paused. A hush fell over the crowd, until one quick-thinking peasant shouted:
"No, he isn't. The emperor is merely endorsing a clothing-optional lifestyle! ~ James Finn Garner

Come sit, dear," the old woman said. "We were just discussing kelpies and changelings."

I turned a delightfully amused face at Ronan, hoping to see him embarrassed to be caught in a world of fantasy, but his face was impassive, completely unperturbed. Those were the hardest boys to ignore: the ones that weren't concerned with your opinion of them, not afraid to be caught listening to fairytales. ~ Annie Cosby

You'll have guys hassling you. When they get drunk, they say and do stupid shit. I'm not saying it's right," he shrugged one shoulder, "but you're not unattractive, so you'll need to deal with that."
"I'm not unattractive? Are you always this charming?"
"If you're looking for Prince Charming, it ain't me, Sunshine"
Sunshine? At least he didn't make any empty promises or pretend to be something he wasn't. "I don't believe in fairytales. Or happily ever after. Prince Charming was an evil villain in disguise, and Cinderella was the doormat he wiped his feet on. ~ Emery Rose

This cape had become Stella. Bold, Bright, Daring, Red! It was a girl in a story-book. Stella was a star on the red carpet, in Hollywood. What a bright smile she had! That photograph! That trophy! And that red hair that flowed like a mane in the wind! ~ Suzy Davies

I will not wear a tulle-tailed dunce cap for anyone or for any reason. ~ Chautona Havig

Patience is the virtue that forges great men. ~ Chris Vincent

The religious imagery and fairytales that formed our shared cultural references have been replaced by the cult of celebrity. Marilyn is the sex goddess, Camilla Parker Bowles is cast as the wicked witch, Che Guevara is the revolutionary. Celebrities have become visual shorthand for narratives that shape our lives. ~ Alison Jackson

It happened like that in fairytales, you see, oh yes, those heroic men would hack down a forest just to get to you. Where were all the heroes nowadays? She ~ Caroline Roberts

I always thought it hadn't influenced me very much, but I heard from many people from England that many motives from German fairytales are to be found in my books. ~ Cornelia Funke

Stop, Lea. I don't get happily-ever afters. Those are just for fairytales and porn. ~ Christine Zolendz

Fairytales work on two levels. On a conscious level, they are stories of true love and triumph and overcoming difficult odds and so are pleasurable to read. But they work on a deeper and symbolic level in that they play out our universal psychological dramas and hidden desires and fears. ~ Kate Forsyth

And I know there's a million more things we need to say to each other, but all I can think about right now is how much I want to kiss you. ~ Rachel McIntyre

Fairytales can never be compared to real life, but life can sometimes be like a fairytale. ~ IDangs Teen Clash

Hans Christian Andersen said 'Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers.' Maybe he was right, maybe not. Either way, just remember: enchanting as they may be, in fairytales the forests are always dark. ~ Greg F. Gifune

Yes, Cinderella won a real prize - a man who couldn't see her true worth until she fitted in the shoe properly. ~ Lily Morton

I want to cover all areas that can be depicted visually. This ranges from fairytales to attempts to enter the abstract and view oneself as a social outcast or someone struggling to stay alive. ~ Gunter Brus

We may say that the characters in fairytales are 'good to think with'…[and that] the job of the fairytale is to show that Why? questions cannot be answered except in one way: by telling the stories. The story does not contain the answer, it is the answer. ~ Brian Wicker

It was about time you noticed that love grows only in your head. Imagine you could have spent your whole life thinking you are special to someone who doesn't even know you exist. It's time. It's time for your love lobotomy. And get rid of that dream of yours about being the main character in love fairytales. You're not. ~ Qfd

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. ~ C.S. Lewis

Hi. I'm Dru Anderson. My father went way-out wack after my mom died and now he travels around hunting things that go bump in the night, killing things you can only find in fairytales and ghost stories. I help him out when I can, but most of the time I'm deadweight, even though I can tell you where anything inhuman in this town is likely to hang out. I'm skipping school because I won't be here in another three months. None of it goddamn well matters. ~ Lilith Saintcrow

We all have a choice - to be monsters or men. It is not a matter of blood, but a condition of the heart. ~ Elizabeth D. Marie

She tasted of fairytales ~ Laini Taylor

We are all taught that the most beautiful part of a fairytale is "happily ever after". But we fail to notice that all fairy tales begin with "Once upon a time". Once. It all happened. It was all real. Once. ~ Neha Bindal

The euphoric lust cloud is gone and once the smoke begins to clear, like in all good fairytales, the princess turns into nothing more than a common farm girl while the prince goes back to being a regular frog. ~ Tali Alexander

Time was too much a part of love, for even in fairytales the proof of love was not its first moment, but its latest ones - that people lived happily ever after. Love at first sight was nothing but infatuation until proved by time ... ~ Margaret Mahy

Snow always takes me back to places of my childhood. I think it's because it makes everything look so bright, new and sparkling. It creates an atmosphere of excitement and wonder. ~ Suzy Davies

How often must I get lost in a strange land of fairytales so that I can find my true self? ~ Debasish Mridha

The ogres and witches and giants of fairytales stand in as metaphors for those obstacles that we all face in our own lives. ~ Kate Forsyth

But I knew that, both in fairyland and the real world, too, wishes were a slipperier things. ~ Karen Joy Fowler

We're gonna defeat Winter, and then we'll all live happily ever after."
He chuckled. "Has anyone ever told you that you read way too many fairytales?"
"I don't need to read them anymore – I'm living one. ~ Rebekah L. Purdy

Can't you see that the courage to risk, to dare, to toss that gold coin up in the air over and over again, win or lose, is what makes humans human? They are fragile, doomed creatures, blinder than worms yet braver than the gods. ~ Jennifer Donnelly

Good for Christmas-time is the ruddy colour of the cloak in which--the tree making a forest of itself for her to trip through, with her basket--Little Red Riding-Hood comes to me one Christmas Eve to give me information of the cruelty and treachery of that dissembling Wolf who ate her grandmother, without making any impression on his appetite, and then ate her, after making that ferocious joke about his teeth. She was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding-Hood, I should have known perfect bliss. But, it was not to be; and there was nothing for it but to look out the Wolf in the Noah's Ark there, and put him late in the procession on the table, as a monster who was to be degraded. ~ Charles Dickens

There weren't always happy endings and children would do well to know that vile things could happen to them, that witches and wolves were desperate to steal them should they be disobedient or foolish or simply unlucky. ~ Thomm Quackenbush

Elsa decides they should begin by taking the bus, like normal knights on normal quests in more or less normal fairytales when there aren't any horses or cloud animals available. But when all the other people at the bus stop starts eyeing The Monster and the wurse and nervously shuffling as far away from them as it's possible to be without ending up at the next bus stop, she realises it's not going to be quite so straightforward.
On boarding the bus it becomes immediately clear that wurses are not at all partial to travelling on public transport. After it had snuffled about and stepped on people's toes and overturned bags with its tail and accidently dribbled a bit on a seat a little too close to The Monster for The Monster to feel entirely comfortable, Elsa decides to forget the whole thing, and then all three of them get off. Exactly one stop later ~ Fredrik Backman