Octavia Butler Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I'm me, and I'm here, and I'm writing.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing

  "Unseen Octavia E Butler stories recovered" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. April 30, 2014.

  18 Copy quote

• There is no end To what a living world Will demand of you.

  Octavia Butler

  World, Demand, Ends

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Sower”, p.154, Open Road Media

  27 Copy quote

• Tolerance, like any aspect of peace, is forever a work in progress, never completed, and, if we're as intelligent as we like to think we are, never abandoned.

  Octavia Butler

  Intelligent, Thinking, Forever

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• I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. I was able to do anything and there were no walls to hem you in and there was no human condition that you were stopped from examining.

  Octavia Butler

  Wall, Fiction, Hem

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• When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.

  Octavia Butler

  Rage, Choke

  Octavia E. Butler (2011). “Fledgling: A Novel”, p.275, Seven Stories Press

  28 Copy quote

• Humans persecute their different ones, yet they need them to give themselves definition and status.

  Octavia Butler

  Giving, Different, Needs

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Lilith's Brood: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago”, p.417, Open Road Media

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• Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.
  Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces.

  Octavia Butler

  Mean, Civilization, Intelligence

  Octavia E. Butler (2017). “Earthseed: The Complete Series”, p.121, Open Road Media

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• I'm a 48-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer. I'm also comfortably asocial -- a hermit in the middle of Los Angeles -- a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.

  Octavia Butler

  Ambition, Oil And Water, Years

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• No, I think the future of humanity will be like the past, we'll do what we've always done and there will still be human beings. Granted, there will always be people doing something different and there are a lot of possibilities.

  Octavia Butler

  Past, Thinking, People

  24 Copy quote

• The big talent is persistence.

  Octavia Butler

  Persistence, Talent, Bigs

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• The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn't manage anything, anyway. I wrote myself in, since I'm me and I'm here and I'm writing.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Character, People

  "Unseen Octavia E Butler stories recovered" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. April 30, 2014.

  15 Copy quote

• Sometimes, one must become a master to avoid becoming a slave.

  Octavia Butler

  Becoming, Sometimes, Slave

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Wild Seed”, p.14, Open Road Media

  4 Copy quote

• Civilization is the way one's own people live. Savagery is the way foreigners live.

  Octavia Butler

  Civilization, People, Way

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Seed to Harvest: Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark, and Patternmaster”, p.134, Open Road Media

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• If you want a thing--truly want it, want it so badly that you need it as you need air to breathe, then unless you die, you will have it. Why not? It has you. There is no escape. What a cruel and terrible thing escape would be if escape were possible

  Octavia Butler

  Air, Desire, Would Be

  Octavia E. Butler (1998). “Parable of the Talents: A Novel”, p.363, Seven Stories Press

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• ...I can write my own stories and I can write myself in.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Stories, My Own

  5 Copy quote

• I'm trying to speak--to write-the truth. I"m trying to be clear. I'm not interested in being fancy, or even original. Clarity and truth will be plenty, if I can only achieve them.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Trying, Fancy

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Sower”, p.141, Open Road Media

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• All religions are ultimately cargo cults. Adherents perform required rituals, follow specific rules, and expect to be supernaturally gifted with desired rewards long life, honor, wisdom, children, good health, wealth, victory over opponents, immortality after death, any desired rewards.

  Octavia Butler

  Children, Long, Honor

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• You are hierarchical. That's the older and more entrenched characteristic. We saw it in your closest animal relatives and in your most distant ones. It's a terrestrial characteristic. When human intelligence served it instead of guiding it, when human intelligence did not even acknowledge it as a problem, but took pride in it or did not notice it at all... That was like ignoring cancer.

  Octavia Butler

  Cancer, Pride, Animal

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• Beware At war Or at peace, More people die Of unenlightened self-interest Than of any other disease

  Octavia Butler

  War, Self, People

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Talents”, p.97, Open Road Media

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• I think climbing mountains or buildings or whatever has been a really good metaphor for finishing my work. Because no matter how tired you get, no matter how you feel like you can't possibly do this, somehow you do.

  Octavia Butler

  Tired, Thinking, Climbing

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• Life is getting better, but that won't stop a war if politicians and business people decide it's to their advantage to have one.

  Octavia Butler

  War, People, Get Better

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Talents”, p.100, Open Road Media

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• Change is the one unavoidable, irresistible, ongoing reality of the universe. To us, that makes it the most powerful reality, and just another word for God. Earthseed: The Books of the Living Lauren Oya Olamina

  Octavia Butler

  Powerful, Book, Reality

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• To get along with God, Consider the consequences of your behavior. Earthseed: The Books of the Living

  Octavia Butler

  Book, Behavior, Consequence

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Sower”, p.98, Open Road Media

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• If there's any single talent a writer needs, it's persistence. If you can keep at your writing and you can learn as you write, you can tell any story you want to tell.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Persistence, Needs

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• We give our dead To the orchards And the groves. We give our dead To life.

  Octavia Butler

  Death, Giving, Grove

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Talents”, p.71, Open Road Media

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