Octavia Butler Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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

  28 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

  23 Copy quote

• 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'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.

  19 Copy quote

• 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

  22 Copy quote

• I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Stories, Wanted

  50 Copy quote

• Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Stories

  11 Copy quote

• Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable.

  Octavia Butler

  Inspiration, Forget, Habit

  Octavia E. Butler (2011). “Bloodchild and Other Stories”, p.145, Seven Stories Press

  11 Copy quote

• A tree Cannot grow In its parents' shadows.

  Octavia Butler

  Tree, Parent, Shadow

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Sower”, p.94, Open Road Media

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• I have this theory that anything that happens to you that leaves you alive and intact can be used somewhere in your writing.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Alive, Used

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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

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  26 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• Rejections are painful, but inevitable. They're every writer's rite of passage.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Rejection, Painful

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Bloodchild: And Other Stories”, p.128, Open Road Media

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  24 Copy quote

• Belief initiates and guides action - or it does nothing.

  Octavia Butler

  Doe, Belief, Action

  Octavia E. Butler (1998). “Parable of the Talents: A Novel”, p.313, Seven Stories Press

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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

  25 Copy quote

• 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.

  17 Copy quote

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

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Stories, My Own

  5 Copy quote

• 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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• 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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• 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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• Humans said one thing with their bodies and another with their mouths and everyone had to spend time and energy figuring out what they really meant. And once you did understand them, the Humans got angry and acted as though you had stolen thoughts from their minds.

  Octavia Butler

  Mind, Energy, Mouths

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Lilith's Brood: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago”, p.765, Open Road Media

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• I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you.

  Octavia Butler

  Thinking, People, Needs

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