The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

I am frantically trying to finish this book before my children get home in about an hour, but I had to stop a moment to gather up this bit, to store it away in a safe place, to underline it in the air (since this is a library book, and underlining is frowned upon).

"Am I to save Fairyland, then?  Did you choose me to do that?  Am I a chosen one, like all those heroes whose legs were never broken?"

The Green Wind stroked her hair.  She could not see his face, but she knew it was grave.

"Of course not.  No one is chosen.  Not ever.  Not in the real world.  You chose to climb out of your window and ride on a Leopard.  You chose to get a witch's Spoon back and to make friends with a Wyvern.  You chose to trade your shadow for a child's life.  You chose not to let the Marquess hurt your friend - you chose to smash her cages!  You chose to face your own death, not to balk at a great sea to cross and no ship to cross it in.  And twice now, you have chosen not to go home when you might have, if only you abandoned your friends.  You are not the chosen one, September.  Fairyland did not choose you - you choose yourself.  You could have had a lovely holiday in Fairyland and never met the Marquess, never worried yourself with local politics, had a romp with a few brownies and gone home with enough memories for a lifetime's worth of novels.  But you didn't.  You chose.  You chose it all." (205-206)

I so needed this book.  I needed this passage.