“A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth.” Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale Source: The Thirteenth Tale Truth
“All children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.” Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale Source: The Thirteenth Tale Children , Truth , Soul , Birth
“A birth is not really a beginning. Our lives at the start are not really our own but only the continuation of someone else's story.” Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale Source: The Thirteenth Tale Birth
“But silence is not a natural environment for stories. They need words. Without them they grown pale, sicken and die. And then they haunt you.” Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale Source: The Thirteenth Tale Nature , Silence
“Once upon a time there was a fairy godmother, but the rest of the time there was none. This story is about one of those other times.” Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale Source: The Thirteenth Tale Time
“Everybody has a story. It's like families. You might not know who they are, might have lost them, but they exist all the same. You might drift apart or you might turn your back on them, but you can't say you haven't got them. Same goes for stories.” Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale Source: The Thirteenth Tale Family
“A story so cherished it has to be dressed in casualness to disguise its significance in case the listener turned out to be unsympathetic.” Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale Source: The Thirteenth Tale