"'You've asked me what these creatures are, and I must admit, I do not know. Spirits, phantastes, fairies, ghosts . . . no single word seems adequate. They are not supernatural beings, they are as natural as the land itself. I believe them to be an essence, a rhythm, a language, a color beyond the spectrum of our sight. They appear in the shapes we clothe them with -- and at first I thought it was only Anna who had the power to do this, but now I've seen creatures from my own recent poems, flickering like moths in the mesquite wood. You once told me that art is a mirror, reflecting each new face we wear. So are these creatures. Right now the faces they show me are of my loneliness.'"

-- Terri Windling, The Wood Wife