Friendship is Love with jewels on, but without either flowers or veil. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers

Often the magical elements in my books are standing in for elements of the real world, the small and magical-in-their-own-right sorts of things that we take for granted and no longer pay attention to, like the bonds of friendship that entwine our own lives with those of other people and places. – Charles de Lint