Bea

“We should perhaps ask why the idea of enthusiastic partners driven by desire and even emotional attachment is regarded as more of a fairy tale than other explanations.”
― Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

“They say a witch used to live in these woods, a long long time ago,” she began. And this is what the little girl would tell her children and what they would tell their children long after the ones who came before were gone. “They say an old witch lived in the east, in Iron Wood. And there, she bore the wolves who chase the sun and moon. They say she went to Asgard and was burned three times upon a pyre and three times she was reborn before she fled. They say she loved a man with scarred lips and a sharp tongue; a man who gave her back her heart and more. They say she loved a woman too, a sword-wielding bride of the Gods; as bold as any man and fiercer still. They say she wandered, giving aid to those who needed it most, healing them with potions and spells. They say she stood her ground against the fires of Ragnarok, until the very end, until she was burned a final time. All but her heart reduce to ashes once more. But others say she lives yet.”
― Genevieve Gornichec, The Witch's Heart

“Doors are very powerful things. Things are different on either side of them.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle

“The wisdom of age is bitter when those you have failed have gone.”
― Conn Iggulden, Khan: Empire of Silver