Mary

“All English stories get bogged down in whether or not the furniture is socially and aesthetically acceptable.”
― A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories

“You are a born storyteller," said the old lady. "You had the sense to see you were caught in a story, and the sense to see that you could change it to another one.”
― A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories

“One of you needs food,' said the Old Woman, 'and three of you need healing.'
So the Princess sat down to good soup, and fresh bread, and fruit tart with clotted cream and a mug of sharp cider, and the Old Woman put the creatures on the table, and healed them in her way. Her way was to make them tell the story of their hurts, and as they told, she applied ointments and drops with tiny feathery brushes and little bone pins ...”
― A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories