William Whitehead Quotes

I'm fascinated with the stories that we tell. Real histories become fantasies and fairy tales, morality tales and fables. There's something interesting and funny and perverse about the way fairytale sometimes passes for history, for truth.

In kindergarten that used to be my job, to tell them fairytales. I liked Hans Christian Andersen, and the Grimm fairy tales, all the classic fairy tales.

As a child I read all kinds of stuff, whether it was 'Asterix and Obelix' and 'Tin Tin' comic books, or 'Lord of the Rings,' or Frank Herbert's sci-fi. Or 'The Wind in the Willows.' Or 'Charlotte's Web.'

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

They were kind of like little Stephen King stories... but these go back many hundreds of years.

Fairy tales are with us day in and day out, not just in commercials, but references in the theater, movies, museums, schools, etc.

Literature - Eastern and Western - abounds with stories, myths, legends about the search for youth, for eternal life.

I love fantasy. I grew up reading fantasy.

Throughout history, story telling was at the very beginning of life.

There are some people who believe that these are not real stories with real people, but they actually are.

I often visit Maria Tatar's 'The Grimm Reader' for a cold dose of courage. Her translations come from the Brothers Grimm, whose now-famous collection of 'Kinder- und Hausmarchen' ('Children's and Household Tales') was first published in 1812. The book was not intended for young readers.

There is something in human beings that loves stories.

Dragons and bridges are very much something out of fairy tales and fantasy.

The fantasy genre has so far rather embraced me, and I'm incredibly grateful for that.

I was raised on the brothers Grimm, but my favorite fairy tales in the world are Oscar Wilde's - 'The Nightingale and the Rose,' 'The Selfish Giant.' The latter is probably my all-time favorite.

I love monsters, I love creatures, I love beings, I love aliens. That's more supernatural and more the stuff of fairy tales. Fairy tales are as ancient as we are. I love those stories. I think they're really interesting because they always have more than simply the fright aspect. There's something deeply psychological.

Kids delight in 'magical thinking', whether in the form of the Tooth Fairy or the saints: whether you see these as comforting lies or eternal verities, they are part of how we help kids make sense of the world.

Humankind has been telling stories forever and will be telling stories forever.

In the old fairy tales, often a 'moral' was tacked on at the end of the story - say, if a book was going to be marketed to young readers. And the morals don't really suit the stories at all, which makes them super weird - part of why I love the tradition so much. I do play with this, though I am more concerned with ethics than morals.

I was a great reader of fairy tales. I tried to read the entire fairy tale section of the library.

Most of the monsters... are based on some sort of mythology. Every culture and even some geographical areas have monsters and mythology that is their own.

Fairy tales and folk tales have always played a role in my writing in one way or another.

Fairly tales are myths, and myths are only myths because there's a grain of truth in them.

Yes, there have to be places for safe wonderful stories.

I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales.