Fay Quotes

“‎The simple truth is that you can understand a town. You can know and love and hate it. You can blame it, resent it, and nothing changes. In the end, you're just another part of it.”
― Brenna Yovanoff

“Down the hill I went, and then,
I forgot the ways of men,
For night-scents, heady and damp and cool
Wakened ecstasy ”
― Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow

“Let her alone,' said the enkanto, 'or I will curse you blind, lame, and worse.'
The old man laughed. 'I'm a curse breaker, fool.'
The elf grabbed one of the Jim Beam bottles from the table and slammed it down, so that he was holding a jagged glass neck. The elf smiled a very thin smile. 'Then I won't bother with magic.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Humph,' he said, with a disagreeable air, 'the universe does its work very quietly.' (“The Bogey Man”)”
― A.E. Coppard, Dusky Ruth and Other Stories

“Quite a number of writers comment on the decidedly human character of the fairies, but it must be obvious that practically all supernaturals partake of human traits, more usually unpleasant ones, being as they are the projections of man's fear and imagination and created by him, psychologically, in his own image. Fairies are frequently described as being peevish, irritable, and revengeful to a degree. Grant Stewart says rather unmercifully of the Scottish fairies that "their appetites are as keen as their inclinations are corrupt and wicked.”
― Lewis Spence, British Fairy Origins

“It made sense the same way everything in Faerie does: sideways and upside down, like looking in an underwater mirror.”
― Seanan McGuire, An Artificial Night

“O, sir,' murmured Sheila, still on her knees, 'please forgive me.'

'Forgive you! 0, la, la, la!' cunningly cried the droll, and strutting like an actor. 'Forgiveness is easy, is it not? O, yes, it is nothing. You are a young woman full of pride. O. yes! - but that is nothing. And full of penitence, and that is nothing, too. Pride is nothing, penitence nothing, forgiveness nothing, but even a bargain in farthings must be paid to be made, and I am a plain business man. What costs nothing brings no balm, and you would not like that, you would not like that, now would you?' (“The Bogey Man”)”
― A.E. Coppard, Dusky Ruth and Other Stories

“I am Shiloh, whose box you stole. Your godmother's sickness lies in your own keeping, you can heal her in a moment. Make me your slave, and I must do your will.'

'You can do this,' Sheila said, 'without my taking a gift from you; you are wise and skilled. O do it, sir, and I will bless your name for ever.'

'Pooh! what is the good of that?' said he. 'No, I serve a master, the King of Kings, but we are emptiness itself without your mortal alloy. Do as I bid and I will serve you like a queen. And if you fear me you have only to put me to sleep and I shall sleep for seven hundred years.'

'No,' said the tempted girl slowly, 'not even for godmother can I do this; you are full of evil. Lies, lies! Why do you lie so?'

'O,' Shiloh said, 'because I am weary, and dissimulation is stimulation.'

'I don't understand that.'

'Well, it is so.' He yawned and yawned. 'Besides, I am the Other Side of things. All you think good may be bad, all you think bad may be good.'

'And I don't understand that.'

Shiloh replied: 'Strong meat for men and lily buds for maids; did Ajax feed on apples?'

'I beg your pardon, sir,' said Sheila.”
― A.E. Coppard, Dusky Ruth and Other Stories

“Maybe any woman could be fay if she walked far enough from the expectations of lesser men. Or maybe I was only fooling myself.”
― Willa Reece, Wildwood Magic