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

• 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

• 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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• 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

  29 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

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

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Stories

  11 Copy quote

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

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Stories, Wanted

  50 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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• 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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• 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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• 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

• Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable.

  Octavia Butler

  Inspiration, Forget, Habit

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

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• 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

  7 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

• 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

  6 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

  23 Copy quote

• 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

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

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Stories, My Own

  5 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.

  16 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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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• 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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• Not everyone has been a bully or the victim of bullies, but everyone has seen bullying, and seeing it, has responded to it by joining in or objecting, by laughing or keeping silent, by feeling disgusted or feeling interested.

  Octavia Butler

  Bullying, Joining In, Laughing

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• Listen, no part of me is more definitive of who I am than my brain.

  Octavia Butler

  Who I Am, Brain

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Lilith's Brood: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago”, p.98, Open Road Media

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