“Are you the only human in the world then? And all of the rest of us monsters?” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
What is the world but a boxing ring where fools and devils put up their fists? — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
The worst thing in the world is having to go back to the dark you shook off. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
When the world changes, it stashes us away where we can't make it run the other way again. — 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
Magic does that. It wastes you away. Once it grips you by the ear, the real world gets quieter and quieter, until… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
A book is a door, you know. Always and forever. A book is a door into another place and another heart and… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Whenever one does extraordinary things, someone is bound to try to repeat them for themselves. It's the way of the world. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontiersman at the edge of their… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really is all right, and what… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I do not tolerate a world emptied of you. I have tried. For a year I have called every black tree Marya… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I can't imagine a decent maze that would be caught dead without a minotaur. It's not done! You don't go out of… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I want to keep on living forever and watching heroes and fools and knights go up and down, into the world and… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
There's more than one way between your world and ours. There's the changeling road, and there's the Ravishing, and there's those that… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I have tried to write stories that go into the underworld of myth and bring out life and fire — where the… — 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
Fairy tales have always been about getting through the worst of everything, the darkest and the deepest and the bloodiest of events.… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I reminded myself: when a book lies unopened it might contain anything in the world, anything imaginable. It therefore, in that pregnant… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Once more September marveled that even the Dodo knew what she wanted to be when she was grown. She simply could not… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“For the wishes of one’s old life wither and shrivel like old leaves if they are not replaced with new wishes when… — 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
Just about every science whiz can tell you how he or she took apart the TV or the radio when they were… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
The world is not made of countries and outsiders. We are all just humans, and most of us fools and all of… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
This is what it means to be a woman in this world. Every step is a bargain with pain. Make your black… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
It is such hard work to keep your heart hidden! And worse, by the time you find it easy, it will be… — 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
