“You will live as you live in any world...With difficulty, and grief.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Autumn has a hungry heart - September is the beginning of death.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“It's not so bad, my darling. Being dead. It's like being alive, only colder.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
First, the avid student must be aware that when the world was young it knew only seven things: water, life and death,… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
You were so near death that ghosts crowded around you, weeping silver tears, waiting for you with such smiles. You humans, you… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“How I adore you, Marya. How well I chose. Scold me; deny me. Tell me you want what you want and damn… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
She knew herself, how she had slowly, over years, become a cat, a wolf, a snake, anything but a girl. How she… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“I belong in the refrigerator. Because the truth is, I'm just food for a superhero. He'll eat up my death and get… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“The burnt-off connectors and shadows where Ravan once filled my spaces— those, I think, are the sensations of grief.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“What matters is entertainment. Eternity takes forever. The infinite expanse of time just does not know when to quit. The dead fear… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“She is…” Death turned her head, considering. “She is like a party dress I wear when I want to impress visiting dignitaries.… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
When I say forever,' Koschei whispered, 'I mean until the black death of the world. An Ivan means just the present moment,… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Do you know, Masha, how revelation comes? Like death. So sudden, though you knew all along it must occur. A revelation is… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Koschei brought you to me. You were so near death that ghosts crowded around you, weeping silver tears, waiting for you with… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Let the truth be told: There is no virtue anywhere. Life is sly and unscrupulous, a blackguard, wolfish, severe. In service to… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“But you are not one of us. For you, this thing is irreversible except by death, and not only the flesh is… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Autumn is the very soul of metamorphosis, a time when the world is poised at the door of winter - which is… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I have terrible nightmares, you know. Every night when I come home from a long day’s dying, I take off my skin… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Thieves are not so bad, and killing wears all possible costumes. There is no death, no murder that is better than any… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
When I saw him I thought I could curl up inside him and go to sleep and never wake up." "Men are no good… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
“You couldn't ever really fix a sad story. You could only make another. And another. And another, until you found the right one at… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
“He considers it for a moment and spits out the seeds, which sprout, quickly, into tiny junkblossoms sizzling with recursive algorithms. The algorithms wriggle… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
“Truly, Mallow yearned to know everything. Curiosity was part of her, like her short blond hair and bitten fingernails.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
“The cicada lies in the earth for seventeen years. It is warm and dark there, it is soft and wet. Its little legs curl… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
Her heart was bruised by the kiss, smashed and surprised and unsettled by it. September thought kisses were all nice, sweet things asked for… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
“September put her hand on the grip of the Rivet Gun. She’d only just gotten it, and she’d promised to take copious notes for… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
“You see, the future is a kind of stew, a soup, a vichyssoise of the present and the past. That's how you get the… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
Fairy tales have always been about getting through the worst of everything, the darkest and the deepest and the bloodiest of events. They are… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
“There is a place, September, oh, very far from Pandemonium. A place where it is always autumn, where there is always cider and pumpkin… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
Who are you?" "I am Death," said the creature. "I thought that was obvious." "But you're so small!" "Only because you are small. You… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share
