Quotes from Vivian Vande Velde

A [reformed] vampire ... mostly tries to make reparation for his previous evil by doing good deeds-most commonly, apparently, going into the crime solving business.

We don't know how long you have, but the longer you're in the game, the more you risk fatal overload.

If you don't like vampire games, don't play

Those Grimm brothers," she said with a sigh, "they'll never amount to anything." And she was right because all they ever became was writers.

They'd poisoned me, dammit. Probably to trade my dead body to the barbarians for Wulfgar's safe return. Or maybe just for the fun of it.

That's very kind of you," she said bitterly, for she no longer believed in kindness. "And you're willing to do this...why? Because you're fond of helping others?" "I'm fond of revenge," the dragon answered.

if Saint Bruce doesn't like your poem, he chops your head off.

There, close enough to spit on--if I'd been a barbarian and inclined to spit--was the dragon.

People always talk about good, fresh country air, but I kept getting wiffs of something that was neither good nor fresh but definitely country.

The wolf sniffed beneath the door to be sure this was a human cottage. The scent was undeniable. No pigs, except in bacon form. The wolf thought bacon form was a very sensible way for pigs to behave.

Giannine--What are they going to do: smack me on the head with a pamplet?

Still," I said, "I am sorry. But I was desperate to rescue my sister." "I understand," the sagging dragon assured me. He explained, "I, too, had a sister, once." The past tense didn't escape me. "What happened to her?" I asked, feeling we were connected, two of a kind after all, sharing similar personal tragedies. "I had to eat her," the dragon said, "to keep her from stealing my gold.

Then, early, early, early in the morning-just as in countless Disney films-I heard a rooster crow. But guess what? They don't do it just once.

Mothers are legendary for being able to read the thoughts of their children at just the right moment.

And there was this sweet-looking little old lady with her white hair in a bun and everything, the typical grandmother type, and she was swearing her head off. I guess Alzheimer's had brought out her inner sailor.

Dragons don't ask for maidens, he said. Dragons are offered maidens. Alys shook her head to show she didn't understand. Is a king likely to be a maiden? Or a village headman? It's the men who make the laws that decree that maidens be offered.

Little girls who hang around with vampires need to get used to dead things...In fact, little girls who hang around with vampires already are with dead things.

After a little bit, [the wolf] heard a human voice call out from inside the house, "Little Red Riding Hood, is that you? Have you come to visit your Granny?" But since the wolf didn't speak human, he guessed what the person had said was: "Did I hear something? Is there someone out there who needs to come in, could you scratch louder?" So that's what the wolf did: he scratched louder.

Number one rule for fiction: Coincidence can be used to worsen a character's predicament, but never to solve his problems.

Once upon a time, before pizzerias or Taco Bells, there was a troll named Rumpelstiltskin who began to wonder what a human baby would taste like.

Once upon a time, in the days before Social Security or insurance companies, there lived a miller and his daughter, Della, who were fairly well-off and reasonably happy until the day their mill burned down.

And it was Rumpelstiltskin who chose the name for Della's baby girl. He called her Abigail, which means "a father's joy.

Don't," she begged, knowing that surely she was trying his patience, that his kindness would stretch just so far, that if he were truly kind he could never have survived as a vampire.

It's difficult to tell which of those brothers is more foolish," Grandmother whispered to Isolda, "Jakob or Wilhelm. They live in a fantasy world of their own." Shaking her head, Isolda agreed. "Those Grimm brothers," she said with a sigh, "they'll never amount to anything." And she was right because all they ever became was writers.