Ella Enchanted Quotes

I wished she’d never stop squeezing me. I wished I could spend the rest of my life as a child, being slightly crushed by someone who loved me.

It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper.

That's funny, you're funny. I like you, I'm quite taken by you.

And so, with laughter and love, we lived happily ever after.

I want to be with you forever and beyond...

I trust you to find the good in me, but the bad I must be sure you don't overlook.

Do you like to slide?" His voice was eager. Stair rails! Did he suspect me? I forced a sigh. "No, Majesty. I'm terrified of heights." "Oh." His polite tone had returned. "I wish I could enjoy it. This fear of heights is an affliction." He nodded, a show of sympathy but not much interest. I was losing him. "Especially," I added, "as I've grown taller.

If I couldn't sleep, I could read.

Hush Hattie!" I said, intoxicated with my success. "I don't want to go to my room. Everyone must know I shan't marry the prince." I ran to the door to our street, opened it, and called out into the night, "I shan't marry the prince." I turned back into the hall and ran to Char and threw my arms about his neck. "I shan't marry you." I kissed his cheek. He was safe from me.

No, I won't marry you. I won't do it. No one can force me.

He put his hand on my waist, and my heart began to pound, a rougher rhythm than the music. I held my skirt. Our free hands met. His felt warm and comforting and unsettling and bewildering--all at once.

I shan't marry a prince!

Although we didn't invite Lucinda, she arrived anyway-with a gift. "No need," Char and I chimed together. "Remember when you were a squirrel," Mandy said.

Would you favor me with a dance?" Over all the others I was his choice! I curtsied, and he took my hand. Our hands knew each other. Char looked at me, startled. "Have we met before, Lady?

Oak, granite, Lilies by the road, Remember me? I remember you. Clouds brushing Clover hills, Remember me? Sister, child, Grown tall, Remember me? I remember you.

That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift. When I cried inconsolably through my first hour of life, my tears were her inspiration. Shaking her head sympathetically at Mother, the fairy touched my nose. "My gift is obedience. Ella will always be obedient. Now stop crying, child." I stopped.

He loved me. He'd loved me as long as he he'd known me! I hadn't loved him as long perhaps, but now I loved him equally well, or better. I loved his laugh, his handwriting, his steady gaze, his honorableness, his freckles, his appreciation of my jokes, his hands, his determination that I should know the worst of him. And, most of all, shameful though it might be, I loved his love for me.

Father asks frequently in his letters whether I fancy any Ayorthaian young lady or any in our acquaintance at home. I say no I suppose I'm confessing another fault: pride. I don't want him to know that I love if my affections are not returned

I wished I could spend the rest of my life... being slightly crushed by someone who loved me.

Perhaps we can come here together someday. By the way, you're a month older than the last time I saw you. Are you still too young to marry.

He bowed. 'The young lady must not dance alone.

Queer Ducks flock together.

To pretend I was sliding down the stair rail." He laughed again. " You should have done it. I would have caught you at the bottom.

I had been able to break the curse myself. I'd had to have reason enough, love enough to do it, to find the will and the strength.

No one is here," Char said. "You need resist temptation no longer." "Only if you slide too." "I'll go first so I can catch you at the bottom." He flew down so incautiously that I suspected him of years of practice in his own castle. It was my turn. The ride was a dream, longer and steeper than the rail at home. The hall rose to meet me, and Char was there. He caught me and spun me around.

But what I really long to know you do not tell either: what you feel, although I've given you hints by the score of my regard. You like me. You wouldn't waste time or paper on a being you didn't like. But I think I've loved you since we met at your mother's funeral. I want to be with you forever and beyond, but you write that you are too young to marry or too old or too short or too hungry---until I crumple your letters up in despair, only to smooth them out again for a twelfth reading, hunting for hidden meanings.

I know all about you," Char announced after we'd taken a few more steps. "You do? How could you?" "Your cook and our cook meet at the market. She talks about you." He looked sideways at me. "Do you know much about me?

My contrariness kept Char laughing, and his goodness kept me in love.

Everyone called it losing Mother, but she wasn’t lost. She was gone, and no matter where I went — another town, another country, Fairyland, or Gnome Caverns — I wouldn’t find her

Love shouldn't be dictated

ahthOOn SSyng!" I said. "That's farewell." "It sounds evil." "It is," I answered, and we parted.

Char saw me. Over the shoulder of his partner, he mouthed, "Wait for me." I grew roots. An earthquake could not have moved me. The clock struck a quarter before eleven. If it had struck the end of the world, I'd have stayed as I was.

In that moment I found a power beyond any I'd had before, a will and a determination I would never have need if not for Lucinda, a fortitude I hadn't been able to find for a lesser cause.

Everyone else reached the Shores of Sleep, but I remained oceans away.

But my last conscious thought was an image of Prince Char when he'd caught the bridle of Sir Stephan's horse. His face had been close to mine. Two curls had spilled onto his forehead. A few freckles dusted his nose, and his eyes said he was sorry for me to go.

I became simply a pair of eyes, staring through my mask at Char. I needed no ears because I was too far off to hear his voice, no words because I was too distant for speech, and no thoughts - those I saved for later. He bent his head. I loved the hairs on the nape of his neck. He moved his lips. I admired their changing shape. He clasped his hand. I blessed his fingers. Once, the power of my gaze drew his eyes...

Fairy blood does not make you clumsy. That’s human.

Instead of making me docile, Lucinda’s curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally.

Perhaps you couldn't help being angry... but you could certainly stop yourself from repaying one offense with another.

But sleep was busy elsewhere

Amor (qué placer escribir esta palabra), amor, amor...

I refused to love it. He was going to sell it too

Rapid movement was a relief in the midst of so much feeling.

I cried, steady tears, like rain. And, like rain, they brought ease.

You were her friend?" he asked. "You liked her?" I told him Ella was the best friend I ever had. He paused again, and I feared he would say she died. But he finally answered that he believed her to be well and married to a rich gentleman. He added, " She is happy, I think, She is rich, so she is happy." Without thinking, I blurted, "Ella doesn't care about riches." Then I realized I'd contradicted a prince! " How do you know?" he said. I answered, "At school everyone hated me because I wasn't wealthy and because I spoke with an accent. She was the only one who was kind." "Perhaps she's changed," he said. " I don't think so, your Highness.

Char was too precious to hurt, too precious to lose, too precious to betray, too precious to marry, too precious to kill, too precious to obey.

curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally. Mother rarely insisted I do anything. Father

... He was only a person on the outside and... his insides were ashes mixed with coins and a brain.

Decisions were a delight after the curse. I loved having the power to say yes or no, and refusing anything was a special pleasure.

My grandmother warned that too much reading would ruin my eyesight, but I couldn’t hear her over the chatter of characters.

Except for the hydra in her swamp and the baby dragon, the exotics—the unicorn, the herd of centaurs, and the gryphon family—lived on an island meadow surrounded by an extension of the castle moat.

Albin stood to the side a few feet and blew his nose with a honk. He could blow his nose a dozen ways. A honk was the saddest.

Your mother was beautiful.” His voice was regretful. “I’m sorry she’s dead.

But the lost one is with you. Her tenderness strengthens you, Her gaiety uplifts you, Her honor purifies you. More than memory, The lost one is found.

By the way, you are a month older than the last time I saw you. Are you still too young to marry?

Edmund,

After two stories, I blew out my light. The night was clear. My ceiling was the sky and an eyelash of the moon. By shifting from side to side, I made my hammock swing me into sleep.

Ogres weren’t dangerous only because of their size and their cruelty. They knew your secrets just by looking at you, and they used their knowledge.

If it had writing, I read it: cereal boxes, ads on the subway, billboards, highway signs. I

I never saw a lad, page or prince, so eager to learn to do a thing right.

trading expedition

We kissed and were wed.

You’re free. The curse is over, love.” Mandy was at my side, hugging me. “You rescued yourself when you rescued the prince. I’m that proud and glad, sweet, I could shout.

Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me

I trust you to find the good in me, but the bad I must be sure you don't overlook. -Char to Ella

But my fairy godmother said Lucinda was the only one who could remove it. However, she also said it might be broken someday without Lucinda’s help.

Once I had overheard Bertha tell Mandy that he was only a person on the outside and that his insides were ashes mixed with coins and a brain. But Mandy had disagreed. 'He's a human through and through. No other creature would be as selfish as he is, not fairies or gnomes or elves or giants.

I'd be unnatural if I weren't enraged. And unnatural if I didn't act on my rage." "Perhaps you couldn't help being angry." the earl answered, "but you could certainly stop yourself from repaying one offense with another.

when he heard you were at finishing school, he was indignant. He demanded to know why you needed to be finished since there was nothing wrong with you to start with. I couldn’t answer him because I’d like to ask that father of yours the same question.

to

That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me.

Everyone called it losing Mother, but she wasn’t lost. She was gone, and no matter where I went—another town, another country, Fairyland, or Gnome Caverns—I wouldn’t find her.

At Your Command

Gnomic, “!chocH !choe echachoed dh zchoaK !chocH

I gathered them on my stomach and waited for sleep. But sleep was busy elsewhere.

And so, With laughter and love, we lived happily ever after. Ella Enchanted

We don’t do big magic. Lucinda’s the only one. It’s too dangerous.” “What’s dangerous about ending a storm?” “Maybe nothing, maybe something. Use your imagination.” “Clear skies would be good. People could go outside.” “Use your imagination,” Mandy repeated. I thought. “The grass needs rain. The crops need rain.” “More,” Mandy said. “Maybe a bandit was going to rob someone, and he isn’t doing it because of the weather.” “That’s right. Or maybe I’d start a drought, and then I’d have to fix that because I started it. And then maybe the rain I sent would knock down a branch and smash in the roof of a house, and I’d have to fix that too.” “That wouldn’t be your fault. The owners should have built a stronger roof.” “Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe I’d cause a flood and people would be killed. That’s the problem with big magic. I only do little magic

quiet. But when no one was looking I would slip into Ella’s room and steal a book and take it back of the barn and try to read it. Usually I could not decipher enough words to make the story have meaning. I burned to learn to read novels and I tortured my mother into telling me the meaning of every strange word I saw, not because the word itself had any value, but because it was the gateway to a forbidden and enchanting land. One

Hard farewell, With no greeting to come. Sad farewell, When love is torn away. Long farewell, Till Death dies. “But the lost one is with you. Her tenderness strengthens you, Her gaiety uplifts you, Her honor purifies you. More than memory, The lost one is found.

Part of the speech had been about dying,

like Heidi, Little Women, and Anne of Green Gables.

The road was little trafficked, and I was too happy about my escape to feel much fear. I was free of orders.

Danger, a quest, three figures. They are close to you, but they are not your friends.” She let my hand go. “Beware of them!

Char was looking at me with such gladness, and I loved him so. I was the cause of his joy and would be the cause of his destruction: a secret delivered to his enemies, a letter written in my own hand, a covert signal given by me, poison in his glass, a dagger in his ribs, a fall from a parapet. "Marry me, Ella," he said again, the order a whisper now. "Say you'll marry me." Anyone else could have said no or yes. This wasn't a royal command. Char probably had no idea he'd given an order. But I had to obey—wanted to obey—hated to harm him—wanted to marry him. I would destroy my love and my land. They were in anger, and no one could rescue them. We were all doomed, all cursed. Char was too precious to hurt, too precious to lose, too precious to betray, too precious to marry, too precious to kill, to precious to obey.

I decided to drop it since he liked it so much. But I glanced at it first, and then I couldn't. I held a porcelain castle no bigger than my two fists, with six wee towers, each ending in a miniature candle holder. And oh! Strung between a window in each of two towers was a gossamer thread of china from which hung-laundry! A man's hose, a robe, a baby's pinafore, all thin as a spider's web. And, painted in a window downstairs, a smiling maiden waved a silken scarf.

I made my way to one of the giant pillows that lined the walls of the dining hall—couches for humans, elves, and gnomes. I would watch the crowd while I dined. The silverware was too big. I looked around to see how others were managing. Some struggled with knives and forks the size of axes and shovels, some stared at their meal in perplexity. And some dug in with bare hands.

Char was looking at me with such gladness, and I loved him so. I was the cause of his joy and would be the cause of his destruction: a secret delivered to his enemies, a letter written in my own hand, a covert signal given by me, poison in his glass, a dagger in his ribs, a fall from a parapet. "Marry me, Ella," he said again, the order a whisper now. "Say you'll marry me." Anyone else could have said no or yes. This wasn't a royal command. Char probably had no idea he'd given an order. But I had to obey—wanted to obey—hated to harm him—wanted to marry him. I would destroy my love and my land. They were in danger, and no one could rescue them. We were all doomed, all cursed. Char was too precious to hurt, too precious to lose, too precious to betray, too precious to marry, too precious to kill, to precious to obey.

Today, and each dawn, Elsa lights a candle and burns incense before the ivory porcelain statue of Kwan Yin, Chinese Goddess of Wisdom and Compassion. She builds a fire in the stone fireplace beneath Ella Young's enchanting face, and sits in the curved chair. The cat, Lady Tiki, purrs on her lap. They gaze out the window at the "dancing dryads," madrone, bay laurel, live oak. Rose-lipped fuschias nod at them through the glass. Elsa's beautiful bright eyes watch the flames. She begins to write. Abigail Hemstreet San Anselmo, CA April 1982