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

But cheating has always been the purview of fairies, and as we are about to enter their domain, we ought to act in accordance with local customs.

Catherynne M. Valente

Because she did not look behind, September did not see the smoky-glass casket close itself primly up again. She did not see it bend in half until it cracked, and Death hop up again, quite well, quite awake, and quite small once more. She certainly di...

Catherynne M. Valente

Of course not. No one is chosen. Not ever. Not in the real world. You chose to climb out of your window and ride on a leopard. You chose to get a witch’s Spoon back, and to make friends with a wyvern. You chose to trade your shadow for a child’s ...

Catherynne M. Valente

Such lonely, lost things you find on your way. It would be easier, if you were the only one lost. But lost children always find each other, in the dark, in the cold. It is as though they are magnetized and can only attract their like. How I would lik...

Catherynne M. Valente

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

Death is not a checkmate…it is more like a carnival trick. You cannot win, no matter how you move your Queen.

Catherynne M. Valente

It's Survival of Them Who's Best at Nicking Things, girl!

Catherynne M. Valente

The sun hitched up her trousers and soldiered on up into the sky. September squinted at it and wondered if the sun here was different than the sun in Nebraska. It seemed gentler, more golden, deeper. The shadows it cast seemed more profound. But Sept...

Catherynne M. Valente

Wishes of one's old life wither and shrivel like old leaves if they are not replaced with new wishes when the world changes. And the world always changes. Wishes get slimy, and their colors fade, and soon they are just mud, like all the rest of the m...

Catherynne M. Valente

That’s what happens to friends, eventually. They leave you. It’s practically what they’re for.

Catherynne M. Valente

It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.

Catherynne M. Valente

I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end of stories? You and I are more alike than you think? Well,” the Marquess took September’s hand in hers and very gently kissed it. “We are. Oh, ...

Catherynne M. Valente

When one is traveling, everything looks brighter and lovelier. That does not mean it IS brighter and lovelier; it just means that sweet, kindly home suffers in comparison to tarted-up foreign places with all their jewels on.

Catherynne M. Valente

Where there is a Key, there is yet hope.

Catherynne M. Valente

She sounds like someone who spends a lot of time in libraries, which are the best sorts of people.

Catherynne M. Valente

My mother lived alone in the ruins of the great Library, which was called Compleat, and a very passionate and dashing Library indeed. Under the slightly blackened rafters and more than slightly caved-in walls, my mother lived and read and dreamed, al...

Catherynne M. Valente

Be my friend and love me, for the world is terrible lonely and I am sad.

Catherynne M. Valente

But luck withered by conservative, tired, riskless living can be plumped up again--after all, it was only a bit thirsty for something to do.

Catherynne M. Valente

Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.

Catherynne M. Valente

As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The speed of children has no limits.

Catherynne M. Valente

True names,” said September wonderingly. “These are all true names. Like, when your parents call you to dinner and you don’t come and they call again but you still don’t come, and they call you by all your names together, and then, of course,...

Catherynne M. Valente

Author Bio

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