Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
-
Now, in the Kingdom of School, to be asked into another child's room is like being asked inside their heart.
-
[...] She started disappearing as soon as she was born. Just to get away from you.
-
Surely you didn't think deathless meant dickless.
-
I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.
-
I chose you," he said simply. "All of the fish of me turned toward you at once.
-
Things that are unsightly: birthmarks, infidelity, strangers in one's kitchen. Too much sunlight. Stitches. Missing teeth. Overlong guests.
-
It's easier to use somebody if you can think of them as mute and dumb and made for your pleasure.
-
But soon the wine sack was empty, and sleep brushed my ears with her ash-lips.
-
There is no better teacher of rough necessity than bad luck, and you will have great use of me, I promise.
-
It was at thirteen years old that Marya Morevna learned how to keep a secret, and that secrets are jealous things, permitting no fraternization.
-
Forests have secrets,' he said gently. 'It's practically what they're for. To hide things. To separate one world from another.
-
I readied myself for the great effort of speaking with the throat-and-belly instead of the mind-and-heart. It is altogether a different skill.
-
Things that cannot long be kept secret: death in the family, the loss of a ring, corruption of the spirit, boredom, illicit love. Sickness. Addiction. Pregnancy.
-
Love me, and I will laugh for you, and if you can make me laugh, my laughter will, quite simply, ransom the whole of the world from death.
-
I am not a little girl anymore, dazzled by your magic. It is my magic, now, too.
-
A labyrinth, when it is big enough, is just the world.
-
But the longer I’m dead, the more I think the universe is a big blackboard with rules scrawled all over it in chalk and stardust and it’s just that the damn thing is flipped over and turned away from us so we can’t see anything but the erase, which death, hitting the floor.
-
She'd thought she left feeling helpless behind long ago - only we never leave helpless behind. It is a country in which we all hold passports.
-
Storytelling can save you. Both the telling and the listening.
-
The war is always going badly.
-
“I can never remember my dreams," said the shadow of the Marquess quietly. "You must have had rich, tasty ones then. When you can't remember a dream, it's because a Baku ate it.
-
They want only their private toys and candies, and will not share.
-
A dragon looks like a girl when it is young.
-
I’m quite civilized, I promise,’ Manythanks sniffed, smiling. ‘Wairwulves are cultured. We have choirs and charity races and rotary clubs. It’s when we’re human that you must take care.