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

No one person can possibly combine all the elements supposed to make up what everyone means by friendship. – Francis Marion Crawford

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them. – Confucius

Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other. – Honore de Balzac