I love fairy tale retellings and mash-ups.

The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.

I love that very traditional fairy tale where it's not all 'happily ever after.' I like all that old school, bloody, 'Brothers Grimm' sort of stuff. So you have all those shades of gray in there.

Fairy tales, because they have a very clear structure, are easier to interfere with. Also they have this really weird logic: the kind of logic that you only really experience when you're not feeling very well, or as a child.

Fairy tales are really violent, the original ones.

I acquired a hunger for fairy tales in the dark days of blackout and blitz in the Second World War.

In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is.

By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung.

As a kid, I would keep telling my younger sister that I was a fairy who had come here to spend time with them. And I actually got to play one!

I was a youngish man entering fatherhood when we wrote 'Woods,' a patchwork of classic fairy tales with an original tale sewn in. I had dedicated my libretto to my baby daughter.

Fairy tales cross generational lines, and how you respond to them depends on when in your life you're seeing them.

When I was little, I made up my own fairy tales, and the ghostly echo of 'Once upon a time' shapes all the fiction I've ever written.

Generally speaking, it has been my ambition to write as a good old nurse will speak when she tells fairy tales.

I like being scared, so I've always liked fairy tales because they're kind of creepy.

When fairy tales are written in the west, they're known as folklore. In the east, fairy tales are called religions.

I have a bit of a love affair with fairy tales and some of the ideas of Irish mythology, like Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats, who captured a lot of that very beautifully.

I love the stories of changelings and the thought that the Fey were these ancient, capricious creatures who were tricky and dangerous. I've always preferred the Brothers Grimm faery tales to the Disney fairy tales.

I have written two books that have to do with fairy godmothers: 'The Magic Touch' and 'Wishing on a Star.'

Sometimes it's great when, you know, you're sitting down to watch a straightforward story, and you know how it's going to go, and you know how it's going to end. That's a fairy tale.

The Islamic terror threat is so fierce, unrelenting and barbaric that we tell ourselves fairy tales about how these ruthless acts are anything but what they are: acts of war.