Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
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Never assume that a woman is wicked simply because she is ugly and behaves unfavorably towards you. It is unbecoming behavior for a Prince.
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When you can change something just by saying a word, that is magic.
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What was magical at two in the morning was tawdry and cheap and dangerous to your health at two in the afternoon.
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But something older and wiser within her said, Some things are for hiding and for keeping.
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A girl in want of a Leopard still has feet.
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Forests have secrets,' he said gently. 'It's practically what they're for. To hide things. To separate one world from another.
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There must be a way! I have begun a Quest! Quests do not simply end. You win or you lose; it is not just suddenly over.
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The bears, over the years, have developed a primitive but heartfelt Buddhist discipline. Beneath the cinnamon trees they practice the repetition of the Growling Sutra.
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What is a map, but a thing that gets you where you're going? -Mr. Map
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A basic moral imperative is in play here. If you can protect a child, you must.
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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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A tongue is very like a gun, which is why they nearly rhyme. Both can be fired to devastating effect, for good or evil, and both can explode in your hands, wounding your comrades instead of your enemies.
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In his own country, Death can be kind.
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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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When you don’t need anything anymore, the only thing you need is stories, and songs, and beauty, and spectacle. That’s the good stuff. The stuff that reminds us who we are.
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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.
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I have survived, but I have not been spared.
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Close up your head; your brain is getting loose.
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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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We’ve made too many movies, you and I. Or too few. Always too few. Too many to have any meaning, too few to say what we meant.
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Check your pockets, my chimney-child.
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We who were once living can guard you still, and love you, and keep you living safe and whole. Nothing ever truly dies.
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Her father’s shadow looked sadly down at her. “You can never forget what you do in a war, September my love. No one can. You won’t forget your war either.
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You'll forgive the flowery talk, won't you? Our family does so love to be told they are beautiful. Vanity is an old and venerable habit.