February 12th, 2013 at 12:21AM
asker

reading-angel asked: My mom's a librarian and planning to put literary quotes on walls. She said, "You'll know this one" and then read the "Fairy tales tell us dragons can be beaten" quote, and I answered, "Yes, it's Chesterton" and she said, "No, it's Neil Gaiman". The internet is divided, roughly half attribute it to you - I know you quoted it in Coraline but I cannot find where Chesterton is supposed to have said it. Wikiquote suggests you may be paraphrasing a longer quote from Tremendous Trifles. Any help?

It’s my fault. When I started writing Coraline, I wrote my version of the quote in Tremendous Trifles, meaning to go back later and find the actual quote, as I didn’t own the book, and this was before the Internet. And then  ten years went by before I finished the book, and in the meantime I had completely forgotten that the Chesterton quote was mine and not his. 

I’m perfectly happy for anyone to attribute it to either of us. The sentiment is his, the phrasing is mine.

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