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I had a long period of writing what I think of as 'save the world' novels. 'Fledgling' was a chance to play.
Octavia E. Butler -
Religion is a dangerous prod, because it can always be misused and get out of hand, but it's useful for keeping people on the straight and narrow.
Octavia E. Butler
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'I’m not a demagogue.''That’s too bad. That leaves the field to people who are demagogues-to the Jarrets of the world. And there have always been Jarrets. Probably there always will be.'
Octavia E. Butler -
People who think about time travel stories sometimes think that going back in time would be fun because you would have all the information you needed to be much more astute than the people there, when the truth is of course you wouldn't.
Octavia E. Butler -
I got up to leave. There was nothing more to be said. He had asked for what he knew I could not give, and I had refused.
Octavia E. Butler -
Too many writers get into that gross-'em-out factor.
Octavia E. Butler -
Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it's all in your head?
Octavia E. Butler -
I don't know how much of a market there is for space opera. Just because it's in the movies doesn't mean magazines are buying it.
Octavia E. Butler
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The norm is white, apparently, in the view of people who see things in that way. For them, the only reason you would introduce a black character is to introduce this kind of abnormality. Usually, it's because you're telling a story about racism or at least about race.
Octavia E. Butler -
At school I was always taller than the rest of my class, and because I was an only child, I was comfortable with adults but shy and awkward with other kids. I was quiet, bookish, and in spite of my size, hopeless at sports. In short, I was different. And even in the earliest grades, I got pounded for it.
Octavia E. Butler -
Several years ago, when I was about to start a novel, I thought I might get some mileage out of the idea of a civilization in which people somehow felt - that is, they shared - all the pain and all the pleasure they caused one another.
Octavia E. Butler -
All strugglesAre essentiallyPower struggles.Who will rule,Who will lead,Who will define,refine,confine,design,Who will dominate.All strugglesAre essentiallyPower struggles, And mostare no more intellectualthan two ramsknocking their heads together.
Octavia E. Butler -
I think we need people with stronger ideals than John Kerry or Bill Clinton. I think we need people with more courage and vision.
Octavia E. Butler -
I had novels to write, so I wrote them.
Octavia E. Butler
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I pecked my stories out two-fingered on the Remington portable typewriter my mother had bought me. I had begged for it when I was ten.
Octavia E. Butler -
The differences you perceive between Humans-between groups of Humans-are the result of isolation and inbreeding, mutation, and adaptation to different Earth environments
Octavia E. Butler -
Simple peck-order bullying is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world.
Octavia E. Butler -
Humans said one thing with their bodies and another with their mouths and everyone had to spend time and energy figuring out what they really meant. And once you did understand them, the Humans got angry and acted as though you had stolen thoughts from their minds.
Octavia E. Butler -
I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you.
Octavia E. Butler -
My race and sex had a great deal more to do with what people believed I could do than with what I actually could do.
Octavia E. Butler
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How completely, how thoroughly he has stolen my child. I have never even tried to forgive him.
Octavia E. Butler -
'Yori, Human purpose isn’t what you say it is or what I say it is. It’s what your biology says it is-what your genes say it is.'
Octavia E. Butler -
A 10-pound sack of potatoes lasts a long time.
Octavia E. Butler -
Helpless lust and unreasoning anxiety were just part of growing up.
Octavia E. Butler