“Once upon a time – for that is how all stories should begin – there was a boy who lost his mother.”

“No, they never expected or sensed the wishes of that omniscient narrator who, at times, wondered, accompanied by a glass of cabernet, about how his story should be constructed, how this story should develop.”

“But behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begins.”

“Like all fairy tales, the story of Sleeping Beauty begins with "Once upon a time," and continues with a foolish young princess who makes a witch very angry, and then takes a nap until her boyfriend wakes her up with a kiss and insists on getting married, at which point the story ends with the phrase "happily ever after."”

“Begin, baby boy, to recognize your mother with a smile.”
Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem.

“Paradise Lost, A further observation could be made upon the story of the Fall and how it is possible to look upon it as a myth of the breakdown of the bicameral mind.”

“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.”

“Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime, I fell in Love in the Library once upon a time.”

“And if the man who once upon a time had been a boy who promised he'd never fall in love with another girl as long as he lived kept his promise, it wasn't because he was stubborn or even loyal. He couldn't help it.”

“The story of how I left Huckleberry begins -- as do all worthy stories -- with a goat”