Quotes by Catherynne M. Valente

About Catherynne M. Valente:

Catherynne M. Valente is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. For her speculative fiction novels she has won the annual James Tiptree, Andre Norton, and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the World Fantasy Award–winning anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, along with numerous Year's Best volumes. Her critical work has appeared in the International Journal of the Humanities under the name Bethany L. Thomas as well as in numerous essay collections.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you'd have to get up again, even with a bul...

Catherynne M. Valente

Why should he be spared?' 'Someone ought to be.' And it will not be me. I have survived, but I have not been spared.

Catherynne M. Valente

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

Twelve mothers and twelve fathers were stacked into the long, thin house, each with four children, drawing the old cobalt-and-silver curtains down the center of rooms to make labyrinths of twelve dining rooms, twelve stting rooms, twelve bedrooms. It...

Catherynne M. Valente

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 ...

Catherynne M. Valente

Histories are instruments of oppression.

Catherynne M. Valente

I have to know, I have to or else you will just rule me until the end of everything because you know and I do not.

Catherynne M. Valente

Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye.

Catherynne M. Valente

It was at thirteen years old that Marya Morevna learned how to keep a secret, and that secrets are jealous things, permitting no fraternization.

Catherynne M. Valente

Life is like that. Death sweeps it away. That's what death is for. That's why they keep telling this story. It's the only story.

Catherynne M. Valente

War is not for winning, Masha," sighed Koschei, reading the tracks of supply lines, of pincer strategies, over her shoulder. "It is for surviving.

Catherynne M. Valente

No, not like this, when I have not seen you without your skin on, when I know nothing, when I am not safe. Not you, whose name all my nightmares know.

Catherynne M. Valente

Let the truth be told: There is no virtue anywhere. Life is sly and unscrupulous, a blackguard, wolfish, severe. In service to itself, it will commit any offense. So, too, is Death possessed of infinite strategies and a gaunt nature—but also mercy,...

Catherynne M. Valente

The war is always going badly.

Catherynne M. Valente

there is only this world, as it is now, and there has never been another, can never be any other.

Catherynne M. Valente

We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on maps are silly.

Catherynne M. Valente

Why do you need that thing?" September asked. "None of the airports back home have them." "They do. You just can't see them right," Betsy Basilstalk said with a grin. "All customs agents have them, otherwise, why would people agree to stand in line a...

Catherynne M. Valente

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

Squeeze your eyes closed, as tight as you can, and think of all your favorite autumns, crisp and perfect, all bound up together like a stack of cards. That is what it is like, the awful, wonderful brightness of Fairy colors. Try to smell the hard, pa...

Catherynne M. Valente

But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk and crusty things and dirt and fear and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you're half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it's so grunged up with living. So ever...

Catherynne M. Valente

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 be...

Catherynne M. Valente

Author Bio

  • NameCatherynne M. Valente
  • DescriptionAmerican writer
  • BornMay 5, 1979
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPoet; Novelist; Writer
  • AwardsLambda Literary Award