1
All things are strange which are worth knowing.Catherynne M. Valente
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We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.Catherynne M. Valente
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Did you never wonder why the old books are so full of dragons chasing after maidens? The serpents think the girls are orphans, and long to get them away in a lair so that they may grow up strong and tall.Catherynne M. Valente
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A dragon looks like a girl when it is young.Catherynne M. Valente
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I see you go bare-shod. This is most likely extremely sensible. Shoes are no end of trouble for girls. How many have danced to death in slippers of silk and glass and fur and wood? Too many to count–the graveyards, they are so full these days. You are very wise to let your soles become grubby with mud, to let them grow their own slippers of moss and clay and calluses. This is far preferable to shoes which may become wicked at any moment. .Catherynne M. Valente
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What is it, Master Calligrapher, that little girls do in the way that spiders weave?" sleeve asked primly. The Calligrapher coughed, for his room was very dusty, and there was dust even on his eyelashes, and said: "It is right and proper, " he said, "for a girl to read as many books as there are bricks in this city, and then, when she is finished, to begin to write new ones which are made out of the old ones, as this city is made of those stones.Catherynne M. Valente
7
This maze is laid out such that should you step through the correct path, by its end you will have learned the most extraordinary dance, such that any coronation would be proud to see you at the height of its feast, such that any holy dervish would weep and call you his devotion."" I think that is very strange–"" All things are strange which are worth knowing.Catherynne M. Valente
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I looked at this man and thought: Oh, how we are going to hurt each other.Catherynne M. Valente
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We treat our stone wives with much more care than they treat their warm ones, anyway. I personally dust mine once a week, and I know Khaamil gives them presents when I am not looking. These are yours - they are in your care, and you must be faithful.Catherynne M. Valente