Octavia E. Butler Quotes
My race and sex had a great deal more to do with what people believed I could do than with what I actually could do.
Quotes to Explore
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I've never been one to run from a challenge.
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My father insisted that I and my sisters not be indoctrinated into any religion at any age.
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We should read music in the same way that an educated adult will read a book: in silence, but imagining the sound.
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When it looks like I may live longer than five minutes I'll drop cigarettes like a hot potato.
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Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.
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We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities.
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I'm not trying to prove anything for the right or the left. Which gives me freedom to make jokes about either side, too.
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I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.
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I'm interested in playing, not working.
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I did not have a van, or wear Birkenstocks and tie-dyes.
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If you grew up in my generation, you're going to be influenced by Run DMC, the Beastie Boys and also listen to Metallica - it wasn't segregated anymore.
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I think the audience keeps it fresh for me. You just never know – every audience has its own personality.
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Slow travel now rivals the fly-to-Barcelona-for-lunch culture. Advocates savour the journey, travelling by train or boat or bicycle, or even on foot, rather than crammed into an airplane. They take time to plug into the local culture instead of racing through a list of tourist traps.
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A filial son to his father can be a traitorous subject to his ruler.
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Broccoli gets such a bad rap. This is perplexing to those of us who love that green, treelike, stalky vegetable.
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I can see through almost any scam, especially one perpetrated by the federal government. I can see through it... they can't pull the wool over my eyes, it's absolutely freakin' impossible to pull the wool over my eyes about the government.
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I'm a lover of all sorts of music, which makes me a chameleon when it comes to performing anything, whether it's opera or whatever. As long as it's good and it feels good, I'm going to cling to it.
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Happiness is a mysterious concept. It seems to work best as futurity: at that point I will be happy, et cetera. I feel like I experience small pieces of joy day to day.
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Winning the Olympics was an amazing feeling, but afterwards, it was a bit like, 'What do I do now?' So I lost a bit of motivation going back into training and competitions; I had so much pressure on me. I kept thinking, 'I'm the Olympic champion. I can't lose' - being only 19 and having to deal with all that pressure.
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I don't mind talking about my dad because he's such a good dude.
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A filmmaker can never be distant from his roots.
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Honestly, in retrospect, it probably was a little easier being an adolescent and not having people immediately know that Hef was my dad.
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I think there is pressure on people to turn every negative into a positive, but we should be allowed to say, 'I went through something really strange and awful and it has altered me forever.'
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My race and sex had a great deal more to do with what people believed I could do than with what I actually could do.
