Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
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War is not for winning, Masha," sighed Koschei, reading the tracks of supply lines, of pincer strategies, over her shoulder. "It is for surviving.
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There a difference between having been coded to present a vast set of standardized responses to certain human facial, vocal, and linguistic states and having evolved to exhibit response B to input A in order to bring about a desired social result?
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Nobody came without their sequins roaring.
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Wife sounded like something exciting, something daring, something a bit scoundrelly, like pirate or bandit. And they were bandits, of course.
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Oh, come on, you must know ‘Leave It Black.’ I see a black door and I’m extremely satisfied with how it looks?
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Of course she cheated. Don't be silly. Snow White spent half her growing years shuffling cards for no one. She can cut false and she can cut true, but she wasn't going to lose when it counted.
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His parties have room for all. Come on in. Nobody to look at you funny in here. Nobody to tell you not to have that drink, kiss that fella, smash that chair, light that chandelier on fire. Do it all. Do it all forever.
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Didn't you know? All stepmothers are witches. It is our compensation for remaining forever an intruder in another woman's house.
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For a witch is nothing without her Spoon.
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Snow White gets a Social Security card. She gets a job building houses out in California. Picks oranges.
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Over in the refrigerated section hang lies told so long ago and so often that they turned into the truth and get taught in history books.
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This is what a grown-up looks like, thought September. Not like the grown-ups in my world who look sad and disappointed and grimy with work and bored with everything.
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Pandemic, Pangaea, Panacea, Panoply. Those were all big words, to be sure, but as has been said, September read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying.
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How else are you supposed to deal with people who like terrible things? Hit them with a shovel till they stop, that’s how.
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I could not say what creeps and whispers through the branches and down the threaded Road, but I hear it, and I am not afraid.
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"This is some hard-core, triple-X, keep-it-in-the-back-room-under-a-curtain, Alice in Wonderland action is what this is,” Decibel said with total delight.
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The Sirens flicked their wings at the wall, inscribing it with their own blue ink: Even in penance is beauty; blessed are all the ocean’s drowned!
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All jobs are odd, or they would be games or naps or picnics.
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She must protect herself. There would be no one to do it for her. A plan started to prick up its ears inside her, slowly, but getting stronger.
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You know how questing goes. You can’t explain it to anyone else; it would be like telling them your dreams.
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It’s the most marvelous and terrible thing in the world. Everyone, but everyone, is pretending to be someone else.
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The future is a messy, motley business, little girl.
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She always gave the impression of having accidentally wandered in from a mad scientist’s conference, and felt rather desperate to get back.
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But luck withered by conservative, tired, riskless living can be plumped up again - after all, it was only a bit thirsty for something to do.