Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
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All tamed things are made a bit ridiculous in the process, you know.
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Greta, Greta, he whispered, eyes shut in rapture, on thy breast I write my Edda, at thy feet I lay the keys of Niflheim, by thy leave alone, I live, and breathe, and die.
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There is no such thing as a people who are all wicked or even all good. Everyone chooses. But even they, even they looked at people and saw only tools. No one is a cup for another to drink from.
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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.
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You are not the chosen one, September. Fairyland did not choose you – you chose yourself.
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This is my heart - carry it with you. I will dream of you in the dark, and you will taste it in my tea, and feel it in my shoes.
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You can't blame a book for its story.
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I have all the books I could need, and what more could I need than books?
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He'll burn you down like wax if you let him. You'll think it's love, while he dines on your heart. And maybe it will be. But he's so hungry, he'll eat you all in one sitting, and you'll be in his belly, and what will you do then?
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...snow is the beginning and the end of everything...
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It takes energy for new roads to diverge in new woods, and no energy is spent with complete efficiency, without waste. Where wood has burned, there will be ash. The waste product of the constantly dividing multiverse is a fine, drifting mist of regret, and no wormhole has ever starved.
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You’re not in love if you keep your own heart bricked up behind your bones. You’re only playing.
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The war is always going badly.
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Rules are for those who can't think of a better way.
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It is not so easy to always remember who you are.
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Luck is a finite and rare substance in the universe, like palladium or cobalt. To use it, you have to take it from somebody else.
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Everyone is a criminal! We are beset on all sides by antirevolutionary forces. Naturally, then, humans fall into three categories: the criminal, the not-yet-criminal, and the not-yet-caught.
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A body needs a good memento mori to flush out the humors.
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I believe we have an utterly unique specimen on our hands: a child who listens.
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The Marsh King raised himself up and ushered me out the door with the air of a host who has just realized he is one guest away from a comfortable nap.
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When you can change something just by saying a word, that is magic.
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But a person’s smell and their alarms and borrowed shirts and secret words linger for a long time. Much longer than a house.
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...the beginning is where the end gets born.
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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.