I met Baba Yaga at the end of childhood – past pigtails and fairytales, but not quite ready to give up on make-believe.

She adored fairy tales,yet derived great rewardrewriting them to the melody of her own warrior soul.Her fairytales weren’t made of desperate girlsbeing rescued by handsomespoiled princes.Her stories were made of badass womenteasing monstersand running wild with dragons.

Patience is the virtue that forges great men.

How can any of us even know what to believe anymore? Our culture’s full of so much phoniness and deception. Companies advertise products to make us believe that we will be more beautiful, more healthy, or live longer by consuming their products. We are seduced by lovers who feed their porn addictions when we’re asleep. We’re taught to believe that if we work hard and take risks, that we can achieve our dreams, yet youth unemployment is the highest it’s been in decades. Fairytales tell us that true love exists, but half of all marriages end in divorce.

Happily Single' is recognizing that you don’t need or want to be rescued from your life by a handsome prince because your life is pretty awesome, as is.

Come closer, my dears, let me give you a warning,Of the fate that befalls those who stay out past morning,In the darkest hours before the dawn,When witches roam and demons spawn,And children die with spirit gone,Magicked away in the gloaming.

A folktale without a moral is merely a whimsy.

Aunt Syl must have conveniently stopped reading the childhood fairy tales when the knight left the damsel in distress to pursue a better damsel out of my bedtime routine.

You think that fairytales are not true, but life itself is the most magical and mysterious fairytale.

But I knew that, both in fairyland and the real world, too, wishes were a slipperier things.