Catherynne M. Valente Quotes - Page 4

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I wouldn't even consider it if I were you. But then if I were you, I would not be me, and if I were not me, I would not be able to advise you, and if I were unable to advise you, you'd do as you like, so you might as well do as you like and have done with it.

Catherynne M. Valente

Might, Able, Done

Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.124, Macmillan

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Because I’m a cat. A big one, the Panther of Rough Storms, in fact. But still a cat. If there’s a saucer of milk to spill, I’d rather spill it than let it lie. If my mistress grows absent-minded and leaves a ball of yarn about, I’ll bat it between my paws, and unravel it. Because it’s fun. Because it’s what cats do best.

Catherynne M. Valente

Fun, Lying, Cat

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”, p.110, Feiwel & Friends

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Blue is for cruel bargains; green is for daring what you oughtn’t; violet is for brute force. I will say to you: Coral coaxes; pink insists; red compels. I will say to you: You are dear to me as attar of roses. Please do not get eaten.

Catherynne M. Valente

Blue, Rose, Green

Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.144, Macmillan

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

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