Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
Quotes to Explore
-
When I was six, the Korean War broke out, and all the classrooms were destroyed by war. We studied under the trees or in whatever buildings were left.
-
I am a proud Zionist. I can tell you about every blossom that grows in this land. I know the history and the Bible.
-
Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
-
I don't hurt or want for visibility, but people seem to forget pretty easily.
-
One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.
-
Oh I've done bungee jumping. Skydiving, I have motorcycles that I ride. I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie in that way.
-
Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life, great friends.
-
Being a pop star is something I don't think I'm very good at. I'm worried it's making me too paranoid, because all of a sudden, life has become this constant assessment. When you put something out there and people get to hear it, then those people react to it, socially, culturally.
-
I'm a fighter, and I don't take no for an answer.
-
I grew up very differently than a lot of other people in my hometown in Mississippi. But I can't imagine my life any other way. I flew home and surprised my best friend at his graduation, and I remember turning to my mom and saying, 'My graduation was so much cooler than this.' I had Melissa Joan Hart give my commencement speech.
-
The understanding of Syria's devastating civil war has been distorted by the immense danger and difficulty of covering it.
-
My goals were last year to win the world champs and this year to win the Olympic Games and I've done that and I couldn't be happier.
-
Care and pity are two different things.
-
I have always been, and shall continue to be, honest when it comes to bodyweight issues.
-
Children, I always think, are just putting on a performance of being naive and not understanding anything. I have worked with children in films, and they're treated as adults and they just drop the pretense of being children.
-
I have a fierce temper. I've mastered it over the years, but when I'm angry, no one can force me to do anything I don't want to.
-
True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is.
-
It is remarkable how fast and how effectively you can construct a nationality with a flag, a few speeches, and a national anthem; to this day I avoid the label 'Lebanese,' preferring the less restrictive 'Levantine' designation.
-
I think I hid my singing talent from a lot of my friends at school because I didn't want to alienate anyone. If everyone was singing along in the car to a Madonna song, I didn't join in because when we're younger we're afraid of sticking out or showing off, when in fact we should own those things that make us really unique.
-
I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.
-
Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.
-
Reading is the heart of learning, and Illinois and the nation are in the literacy emergency room showing a flat line on the education EKG. The state's results clearly demonstrate that we still are not doing what is needed to help these older students build the reading skills they will need to deal with increasingly complex high school courses.
-
I'm grateful to be alive, because I really did not think I was going to be alive, onstage performing songs.
-
Dreams keep the heart alive.
