The stuffed rabbit asked, “What is real?” 

And the rabbit asked, “Does it hurt?” 

And the horse said, “Sometimes.” 

“Does it happen all at once?” 

“It takes a long time. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, your eyes dropped out, and you get loose in the joints. But these things don’t matter at all because you are real. You can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand.”

The Velveteen Rabbit