Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
I savor bitterness - it is born of experience. It is the privilege of one who has truly lived. You, too, must learn to prefer it. After all, when all else is gone, you may still have bitterness in abundance.

Quotes to Explore
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I know there are a lot of people out there who have the best intentions but not the voice, so it's about people like me to give them a voice and hear their ideas.
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Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.
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When you can score three goals without the most prolific scorer in the world, you know you have a lot of depth, and it gives you confidence.
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Food doesn't necessarily have to suck in order to be healthy. It doesn't have to be terrible to be healthy anymore.
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There can be no literary equivalent to truth.
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I don't think anything I've written has been done in under six or eight drafts. Usually it takes me a few years to write a book. 'World's Fair' was an exception. It seemed to be a particularly fluent book as it came. I did it in seven months. I think what happened in that case is that God gave me a bonus book.
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Eighteenth-century matrons would have never have dreamed of appointing a redhaired wet nurse for their precious offspring - redheads passed on their horrible characters through their milk.
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Always keep that happy attitude. Pretend that you are holding a beautiful fragrant bouquet.
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I'm cool with myself. If I can't have the body of Angie Bassett, so be it.
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I just butcher a book. Everything I underline I assume is important to me.
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Freedom is secured every day by our men and women in uniform. We must build a future worthy of their sacrifice.
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How many times do I have to repeat this: my childhood was fantastic.
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Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.
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At some point, you've got to realize, you're either a leading man or you're not.
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I live in a Moomin house in East London which I fill with blankets and nice crockery and get people round for dinner. When you travel a lot, you feel rootless and adrift - this is my sanctuary, where I can breathe out.
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I haven't seen much socially redeeming about religion. I'm an atheist. I don't here want to get into the Hitchens- or Dawkins-style attack on religion. I was raised on that. It's boring.
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Usually, TED only invites the most accomplished and famous people in the world to give talks.
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My stepdad is a Patriots fan, so I've become a Pats fan, too.
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Boredom, after all, is a form of criticism.
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If you are a cabaret artist and you are mostly singing other people's songs, you're asking them to rethink a song, listen to it in a different way. The most impact you can have while asking them to re-listen to a song is if it's a song they know very well.
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All observers not laboring under hallucinations of the senses are agreed, or can be made to agree, about facts of sensible experience, through evidence toward which the intellect is merely passive, and over which the individual will and character have no control.
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In any given moment, a man's growth is optimized if he leans just beyond his edge, his capacity, his fear. He should not be too lazy, happily stagnating in the zone of security and comfort. Nor should he push far beyond his edge, stressing himself unnecessarily, unable to metabolize his experience. He should lean just slightly beyond the edge of fear and discomfort. Constantly. In everything he does.
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I savor bitterness - it is born of experience. It is the privilege of one who has truly lived. You, too, must learn to prefer it. After all, when all else is gone, you may still have bitterness in abundance.