欧宝娱乐

“She walks to the boy, tilts her head up at him, and smiles. He bends down to kiss her. Then he helps her onto the horse, and she rides away with him to a faraway place, until they can no longer be seen.

These are only rumors, of course, and make little more than a story to tell around the fire. But it is told. And thus they live on.”
― Marie Lu, The Midnight Star

“I love the way folktale and fantasy tap into the roots of story telling. The paradox, for me, is that by moving a story into the fantastic we can actually bring it closer to the reader, not move it further away. It is more than an escape. When we read of the only daughter of a fisherman (or the third son of a woodcutter) in a fairy tale, we are all that character. That's the underlying pulse beat of such tales. Using the fantastic as a prism for the past, if done properly, removes the tale from distancing specificity. It can't just be read as unique to a time and place; it is universalized in interesting, powerful ways. When I wrote Tigana, about the way tyranny tries to erase identity in conquered peoples, the fantasy setting seems to have done exactly that: I'm asked in places ranging from Korea to Poland to Croatia to Quebec, "Were you writing about us?"

I was. All of them. That is the point. The fantastic is a tool in the writer's arsenal, as potentially powerful as any there is, and any tool we have works to the benefit of the reader.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven

“The tale is told by royalty and vagabonds alike, nobles and peasants, hunters and farmers, the old and the young. The tale comes from ever corner of the world, but no matter where it is told, it is always the same story,

A boy on horseback, wandering at night, in the woods or on the plains or along the shores. The sound of a lute drifts in the evening air. Over head are the stars of a clear sky, a sheet of light so bright that he reaches up, trying to touch them. He stops and descends from his horse. Then he waits. He waits until exactly midnight, when the newest constellation in the sky blinks into existence.

If you are very quiet and do not look away, you may see the brightest star in the constellation glow steadily brighter. It brightens until it overwhelms every other star in the sky, brightens until it seems to touch the ground, and then the glow is gone, and it its place is a girl.

Her hair and lashes are painted a shifting silver, and a scar crosses one side of her face. She is dressed in Sealand silks and a necklace of sapphire. Some say that, once upon a time, she had a prince, a father, a society of friends. Other say that she was once a wicked queen, a worker of illusions, a girl who brought darkness across the lands. Still others say that she once had a sister, and that she loved her dearly. Perhaps all of these are true.

She walks to the boy, tilts her head up at him, and smiles. He bends down to kiss her. Then he helps her onto the horse, and she rides away with him to a faraway place, until they can no longer be seen.

These are only rumors, of course, and make little more than a story to tell around the fire. But it is told. And thus they live on.
--"The Midnight Star", a folktale”
― Marie Lu, The Midnight Star

“Together they鈥檇 run away. Together they could find a place to call home. Together they鈥檇 finally form their own constellation and never break apart again. He would be her starlight again and she his sun.”
― Hella Grichi, Fae Visions of the Mediterranean

“What Can Be Learned From a Thief

The saintly Rabi Zusya was originally a disciple of the tsaddik Rabbi Dov Baer of Mezritsh. Once he asked his master to teach him the secret of worshipping the Creator. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no need for me to teach you,鈥� replied Rabbi Dov Baer, 鈥渂ecause you can learn it from any child or thief.鈥�
鈥淲hy, how can I learn it from a child?鈥� asked the astounded disciple.
鈥淚n three ways,鈥� replied his master. 鈥淔irst, a child needs no reason to be happy. Second, a child always keeps busy. And third, when a child wants something, it screams until it gets it.鈥�
鈥淎nd what,鈥� asked Rabbi Zusya, 鈥渃an I learn from a thief?鈥�
鈥淔rom a thief,鈥� answered Rabbi Dov Baer, 鈥測ou can learn seven things. First, to apply yourself by night and not just by day. Second, to try again if at first you don鈥檛 succeed. Third, to love your comrades. Fourth, to be ready to risk your life, even for a small thing. Fifth, to attach so little value to what you have that you will sell it for a pittance. Sixth, not to be put off by hardship and blows. And seventh, to be glad you are what you are instead of wanting to be something else.”
― Pinhas Sadeh, Jewish Folktales

“Allow me to mention here that a stupid girl, one who spends the whole day picking her nose and lazing on the stove, and eventually becomes a princess or a queen, is completely unthinkable in fairytales! The imagination of folktale-tellers created an equivalent of male heroism in the characters of Slavic Amazons (the Russian Sineglazka or the 'Giant Girls', Div-devojke, in Serbian folksongs), but grubby, idle, and stupid girls are usually punished with death. Wealth, a throne and love are only conceivable as rewards for grubby, idle, stupid guys!”
― Dubravka Ugre拧i膰, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg

“God and Man were inseparable companions. One day God said to Man: why don鈥檛 you go walk around on earth for a while so we can find some new topics for conversation? 鈥攂eginning of a Malagasy folktale”
― David Graeber, Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia

“Scarce had Aladdin鈥檚 mother begun to rub the Lamp when there appeared to her one of the Jinn, who said to her in a voice like thunder, 鈥淪ay what you want of me. Here am I, your slave and the slave of whosoever holds the Lamp.”
― Antoine Galland, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp: A Classic Folktale from the 鈥楢rabian Nights鈥�