Catherynne M. Valente Quotes - Page 4

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She who invented words, and yet does not speak; she who brings dreams and visions, yet does not sleep; she who swallows the storm, yet knows nothing of rain or wind. I speak for her; I am her own.

Catherynne M. Valente

Dream, Rain, Sleep

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She did not want to read this book from start to finish, or rather, she thought perhaps it did not want her to. Instead she practiced the art of bibliomancy, trusting the book to show her what it wanted her to know.

Catherynne M. Valente

Art, Book, Want

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You know, in Fairyland-Above they said that the underworld was full of devils and dragons. But it isn’t so at all! Folk are just folk, wherever you go, and it’s only a nasty sort of person who thinks a body’s a devil just because they come from another country and have different notions. It’s wild and quick and bold down here, but I like wild things and quick things and bold things, too.

Catherynne M. Valente

Country, Thinking, Dragons

Catherynne M. Valente (2012). “The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There”, p.247, Macmillan

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Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it.

Catherynne M. Valente

Stories

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.112, Macmillan

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Yes, yes, mistress, I shall go and accomplish your task. Only—I was not only sent to kill the Leucrotta. There is a maiden in a tower—" At this the Witch spat, again rolling her marvelous eyes. "Those revolting creatures are always getting themselves locked up. If only they would stay that way.

Catherynne M. Valente

Eye, Mistress, Rolling

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You should always listen to minotaurs. Anybody with four stomachs has to have a firm grip on reality.

Catherynne M. Valente

Reality, Four, Should

Catherynne M. Valente (2013). “The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two”, p.26, Macmillan

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Stories,' the green-eyed Sigrid said, unperturbed, 'are like prayers. It does not matter when you begin, or when you end, only that you bend a knee and say the words.

Catherynne M. Valente

Prayer, Doe, Stories

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We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on maps are silly.

Catherynne M. Valente

Silly, Maps, Lines

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.17, Macmillan

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I am a Prince," he replied, being rather dense. "It is the function of a Prince—value A—to kill monsters—value B—for the purpose of establishing order—value C—and maintaining a steady supply of maidens—value D. If one inserts the derivative of value A (Prince) into the equation y equals BC plus CD squared, and sets it equal to zero, giving the apex of the parabola, namely, the point of intersection between A (Prince) and B (Monster), one determines value E—a stable kingdom. It is all very complicated, and if you have a chart handy I can graph it for you.

Catherynne M. Valente

Zero, Order, Cds

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We all just keep moving, September. We keep moving until we stop.

Catherynne M. Valente

Moving, September, Keep Moving

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.194, Macmillan

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Love, I've never been anyone's mother; I don't know how to talk to young or old. But don't stop smiling just because I flap my mouth and say something that's not dressed around the edges like a lace tablecloth. Thicken up and we'll get along fine.

Catherynne M. Valente

Mother, Mouths, Lace

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But if you must be clever, then be clever. Be brave. Sleep with fists closed and shoot straight.

Catherynne M. Valente

Clever, Sleep, Brave

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.59, Macmillan

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You only had to choose which me to talk to, for, you know, we all change our manners, depending on who has come to chat. One doesn’t behave at all the same way to a grandfather as to a bosom friend, to a professor as to a curious niece.

Catherynne M. Valente

Niece, Grandfather, Way

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.351, Macmillan

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It’s been me all along,” said September slowly. “Me who gave up my shadow, me who went down into Fairyland-Below and Fairyland-Lower-Than-That to wake up the Prince. Me who shot the poor Minotaur. You oughtn’t just hand the whole business over the moment a Prince comes on the scene. I’ve got to see it through, don’t you see? The Hollow Queen is hollow because she’s missing the part of her that’s me. We’ve got to come together again. And he can’t do a thing about that.

Catherynne M. Valente

Queens, Hands, Together Again

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It is harder, usually, to find a person who wants to walk the streets of me, to taste the teas of my country, to... immigrate, you could say.

Catherynne M. Valente

Country, Tea, Want

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I don’t want to be a Princess,” she said finally. “You can’t make me be one.” She knew very well what became of Princesses, as Princesses often get books written about them. Either terrible things happened to them, such as kidnappings and curses and pricking fingers and getting poisoned and locked up in towers, or else they just waited around till the Prince finished with the story and got around to marrying her. Either way, September wanted nothing to do with Princessing.

Catherynne M. Valente

Book, Princess, Want

Catherynne M. Valente (2012). “The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There”, p.107, Macmillan

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Some girls have to go to college to discover what they are good at; some are born doing what they must without even truly knowing why. I felt a hole in my heart shaped like a dark door I needed to guard.

Catherynne M. Valente

Girl, Heart, Dark

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.352, Macmillan

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I have tried to write stories that go into the underworld of myth and bring out life and fire — where the old world looked at a woman alone and immortal and said: she must long to die, I have tried to say: look at her live!

Catherynne M. Valente

Writing, Fire, Long

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If one did not have at least a little luck, one would never survive childhood. But luck can be spent, like money; and lost, like a memory; and wasted, like a life.

Catherynne M. Valente

Memories, Childhood, Luck

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.62, Macmillan

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An equation is a prophecy that always comes true.

Catherynne M. Valente

Prophecy, Equations

Catherynne M. Valente (2015). “The Boy Who Lost Fairyland”, p.131, Macmillan

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Everyone is afraid of you and when folk are afraid of a person it usually means the person is cruel in some way, and I think you are cruel, Miss Marquess, but please don’t punish me for saying it. I think you know you’re cruel. I think you like being cruel. I think calling you cruel is the same as calling someone else kind. And I don’t want to run errands for someone cruel.

Catherynne M. Valente

Running, Mean, Thinking

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.99, Macmillan

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And it's the wonders I'm after, even if I have to bleed for them.

Catherynne M. Valente

Wonder, Ifs

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.50, Macmillan

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All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. But, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.) Some small ones are terrible and fey, Utterly Heartless. Some are dear and sweet and Hardly Heartless at all.

Catherynne M. Valente

Sweet, Children, Reading

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Perhaps all a Tsaritsa is is a beautiful cold girl in the snow, looking down at someone wretched, and not yielding.

Catherynne M. Valente

Beautiful, Girl, Snow

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.85, Macmillan

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So most people go around with grimy machinery, when all it would take is a bit of spit and polish to make them paladins once more, bold knights and true.

Catherynne M. Valente

Knights, People, Spit

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.60, Macmillan

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Born: May 5, 1979
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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