Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
That's just the first part. What others call you, you become. It's a terrible magic that everyone can do - so do it. Call yourself what you wish to become.
Quotes to Explore
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Any creative process comes with a level of self-analysis and self-criticism. There's a lot of waking up in the middle of the night going, 'Oh, I wish I had done that differently.'
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The magic of America is that we're a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.
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Writing for the theater, you find yourself living a nocturnal life.
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As you get older, you overthink and can talk yourself out of anything. It's good to be a bit reckless and experimental.
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You must go after your wish. As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.
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At no point do I wish to be in conflict with any man or masculine thought. It doesn't enter my consciousness. Art is anonymous. It's not competitive with men. It's a complementary contribution.
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There are only three outs an inning, and they should be treasured. Give one away, and you're making everything harder for yourself.
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I call my therapist every other day. It's not a one-stop shop. You have to push away all that negativity in your head. Face it, name it, let it go.
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I'm not familiar particularly with Hillary Clinton's neighborhood, but I wish people were a little bit more curious about what we call privilege and about why it's there. Black people in this country have no choice but to be curious. We have to know. I wish folks would do a little bit more investigation.
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When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.
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Don't think of yourself as a woman in business.
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I think you need to do something new to keep reinventing yourself.
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I learned, especially from my mother, to respect the profession and take it seriously, but not take yourself too seriously.
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When you're on the victory podium, you're a queen, but when you come down from it, you're nobody. You cannot be too proud of yourself.
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I call myself a geriatric starlet.
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I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is the Christian religion.
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Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.
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Divorced from the cosmos, from nature, from society and from each other, we have become fractured and fragmented.
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You have a core competency, something you're better at than I'll ever be, and that's your magic - your pixie dust.
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The word ‘slavery’ and ‘right’ are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another, or between one man and a whole people, it would always be absurd to say: "I hereby make a covenant with you which is wholly at your expense and wholly to my advantage; I will respect it so long as I please and you shall respect it as long as I wish.
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When you can change something just by saying a word, that is magic.
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I don't do my best work while I'm in therapy. I'm too onto myself immediately seeing meanings in things and more likely to censor myself. I'd rather find images I don't understand. That's what generates the work.
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Don't forget there are two sides to performing. Finding the truth, but you also have to be transparent enough for the audience to see it. How many times have you seen a performance and thought: 'Well, it seems to be meaning a great deal to you but it ain't coming across to me?' It is to be shared.
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That's just the first part. What others call you, you become. It's a terrible magic that everyone can do - so do it. Call yourself what you wish to become.
