My last post talks about Philip Pullman and fairy tales. However, Philip Pullman is a much better writer than I could ever be, and he writes about his own opinion on the importance of fairy tales and stories here. It is definitely worth a read.
As a passionate believer in the democracy of reading, I don’t think it’s the task of the author of a book to tell the reader what it means. The meaning of a story emerges in the meeting between the words on the page and the thoughts in the reader’s mind. So when people ask me what I meant by this story, or what was the message I was trying to convey in that one, I have to explain that I’m not going to explain. Anyway, I’m not in the message business; I’m in the “Once upon a time” business.
– Philip Pullman
1001 Children's Books 