Catherynne M. Valente Quotes - Page 5

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Readers will always insist on adventures, and though you can have grief without adventures, you cannot have adventures without grief.

Catherynne M. Valente

Grief, Adventure, Reader

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.68, Macmillan

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How much better if life were more like books, if life lied a little more, and gave up its stubborn and boring adherence to the way things can be, and thought a little more imaginatively about the way things might be.

Catherynne M. Valente

Book, Stubborn, Littles

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Who are you?" "I am Death," said the creature. "I thought that was obvious." "But you're so small!" "Only because you are small. You are young and far from your Death, September, so I seem as anything would seem if you saw it from a long way off-very small, very harmless. But I am always closer than I appear. As you grow, I shall grow with you, until at the end, I shall loom huge and dark over your bed, and you will shut your eyes so as not to see me.

Catherynne M. Valente

Eye, Dark, Long

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.148, Macmillan

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That's Venus, September thought. She was the goddess of love. It's nice that love comes on first thing in the evening, and goes out last in the morning. Love keeps the light on all night.

Catherynne M. Valente

Morning, Nice, Night

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.314, Macmillan

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The world is not made of countries and outsiders. We are all just humans, and most of us fools and all of us longing for more than we have, to know more than we know--and yet even that is not enough, for if we knew everything we would only be disappointed that there was not one more secret to uncover.

Catherynne M. Valente

Country, Secret, World

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Do you think I am a fool, Masha? All this time, and you speak to me as though I were a flighty pinprick of a girl. I am a magician! Did you never think, even once, that I loved lipstick and rouge for more than their color alone? I am a student of their lore, and it is arcane and hermetic beyond the dreams of alchemists. Did you never wonder why I gave you so many pots, so many creams, so much perfume?

Catherynne M. Valente

Girl, Dream, Thinking

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.143, Macmillan

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Truly, Autumn is my season,” the scarlet beast chorted. “Spring and Summer and Winter all begin with such late letters! But Autumn and Fall, I have loved best, because they are best to love.

Catherynne M. Valente

Summer, Spring, Fall

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When little ones say they want to go home, they almost never mean it. They mean they are tired of this particular game and would like to start another.

Catherynne M. Valente

Home, Tired, Mean

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.234, Macmillan

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If I stop, I shall sink and die. That's the way I'm made. I have to keep going always, and even when I get where I'm going, I'll have to keep on. That's living.

Catherynne M. Valente

Way, Made, Dies

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.222, Macmillan

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... 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.

Catherynne M. Valente

Simple, Color, Flying

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.51, Macmillan

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I wonder sometimes what the memory of God looks like. Is it a palace of infinite rooms, a chest of many jeweled objects, a long, lonely landscape where each tree recalls an eon, each pebble the life of a man? Where do I live, in the memory of God?

Catherynne M. Valente

Lonely, Memories, Men

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But this is a story, and in a story there is always someone beautiful enough." - 'The Girl with Two Skins' from A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects

Catherynne M. Valente

Beautiful, Girl, Two

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I do not tolerate a world emptied of you. I have tried. For a year I have called every black tree Marya Morevna; I have looked for your face in the patterns of the ice. In the dark, I have pored over the loss of you like pale gold.

Catherynne M. Valente

Loss, Dark, Years

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.254, Macmillan

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Children make prayers so thoughtlessly, building them up like sand castles—and they are always surprised when suddenly the castle becomes real, and the iron gate grinds shut.

Catherynne M. Valente

Prayer, Children, Real

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The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel still sit on the hill, and drink vodka, and wear black furs, and slurp borscht by the pail, like blood. Children may wear through their socks marching in righteous parades, but Papa never misses his wine with supper. Therefore, it is better to be strong and cruel than to be fair. At least, one eats better that way. And morality is more dependent on the state of one’s stomach than of one’s nation.

Catherynne M. Valente

Strong, Children, Wine

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She liked anything orange: leaves; some moons; marigolds; chrysanthemums; cheese; pumpkin, both in pie and out; orange juice; marmalade. Orange is bright and demanding. You can't ignore orange things. She once saw an orange parrot in the pet store and had never wanted anything so much in her life. She would have named it Halloween and fed it butterscotch. Her mother said butterscotch would make a bird sick and, besides, the dog would certainly eat it up. September never spoke to the dog again — on principle.

Catherynne M. Valente

Mother, Dog, Halloween

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.16, Macmillan

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That stirring which had fluttered in her on first glimpsing the sea—that stirring landlocked children know so well—moved in her now, with the golden stars over head, and the green fireflies glinting on the wooded shore. She carefully unfolded the stirring that she had so tightly packed away. It billowed out like a sail, and she laughed, despite herself, despite hunger and hard things ahead.

Catherynne M. Valente

Stars, Children, Firefly

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.176, Feiwel & Friends

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The man who knelt before her would have sprung from her needles, even down the ghostly flecks of silver in his hair. She had not known before that she wanted all these things, that she preferred dark hair and a slightly cruel expression, that she wishes for tallness, or that a man kneeling might thrill her.

Catherynne M. Valente

Dark, Men, Hair

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.57, Macmillan

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You and I, being grown-up and having lost our hearts at least twice or thrice along the way, might shut our eyes and cry out: Not that way, child! But as we have said, September was Somewhat Heartless, and felt herself reasonably safe on that road. Children always do.

Catherynne M. Valente

Children, Heart, Eye

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.26, Feiwel & Friends

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The storm ate up September’s cry of despair, delighted at its mischief, as all storms are.

Catherynne M. Valente

Despair, Storm, September

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.241, Macmillan

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Her heart ached as though a knife had quietly slipped between her ribs.

Catherynne M. Valente

Heart, Knives, Ribs

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.186, Macmillan

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Someone ought to write a novel about me,” said Lebedeva loftily. “I shouldn’t care if they lied to make it more interesting, as long as they were good lies, full of kisses and daring escapes and the occasional act of barbarism. I can’t abide a poor liar.

Catherynne M. Valente

Lying, Liars, Writing

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.102, Macmillan

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When I saw him I thought I could curl up inside him and go to sleep and never wake up." "Men are no good for that, Masha. They'll always want you working, when you're not softening their fall into bed at the end of the day.

Catherynne M. Valente

Fall, Sleep, Men

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.242, Macmillan

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I have terrible nightmares, you know. Every night when I come home from a long day’s dying, I take off my skin and lay it nicely on my armoire. I take off my bones and hang them up on the hatstand. I set my scythe to washing on the old stove. I eat a nice supper of mouse-and-myrrh soup. Some nights I drink off a nice red wine. White does not agree with me. I lay myself down on a bed of lilies and still, I cannot sleep.

Catherynne M. Valente

Nice, Home, Wine

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.175, Feiwel & Friends

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Death is not a checkmate…it is more like a carnival trick. You cannot win, no matter how you move your Queen.

Catherynne M. Valente

Queens, Moving, Winning

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.174, Macmillan

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

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