I don't write about good and evil with this enormous dichotomy. I write about people. I write about people doing the kinds… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
I had a long period of writing what I think of as 'save the world' novels. 'Fledgling' was a chance to play. — Octavia E. Butler Books Copy Share Image
I pecked my stories out two-fingered on the Remington portable typewriter my mother had bought me. I had begged for it when… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“You’re healthy,” it said. “Your development is exactly right. I can’t find any flaw in you.” And” — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it's all in your head? — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
I think we need people with stronger ideals than John Kerry or Bill Clinton. I think we need people with more courage… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“I could accept him as my ancestor, my younger brother, my friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover.… — Octavia E. Butler Brother Copy Share Image
Getting your writing criticized can be a lot like getting skinned, and you respond to it just as enthusiastically. — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
At school I was always taller than the rest of my class, and because I was an only child, I was comfortable… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“It’s better to teach people than to scare them, Lauren. If you scare them and nothing happens, they lose their fear, and… — Octavia E. Butler Fear Copy Share Image
Beware, all too often we say what we hear others say. We think what we are told that we think. We see… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind and yet I found myself… — Octavia E. Butler Inspirational Copy Share Image
“It’s too easy to follow bad but attractive leaders, embrace pleasurable but destructive habits, ignore looming disaster because maybe it won’t happen… — Octavia E. Butler Adolescent Copy Share Image
Several years ago, when I was about to start a novel, I thought I might get some mileage out of the idea… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
The norm is white, apparently, in the view of people who see things in that way. For them, the only reason you… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“This is the biggest lot of abolitionist trash I ever saw.” “No it isn’t,” I said. “That book wasn’t even written until… — Octavia E. Butler Abolitionist Copy Share Image
“He could not tell her that he was angry because she did not love him. Even he could not utter such foolishness.… — Octavia E. Butler Children Copy Share Image
“in an interview Butler has stated that the meaning of the amputation is clear enough: “I couldn’t really let her come all… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“I couldn’t let her come back whole and that, I think, really symbolizes her not coming back whole. Antebellum slavery didn’t leave… — Octavia E. Butler Antebellum Copy Share Image
Writing has been as difficult for me as for people who don't like to write and as little fun. — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“She could not make herself ask whether he would be conscious and aware during these experiments. She hoped he would be.” — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“We can, Each of us, Do the impossible As long as we can convince ourselves That it has been done before.” — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
With a disaster like global warming, it's too late to worry about when it's looming except to figure out how to adapt… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“Freedom is dangerous but it's precious, too. You can't just throw it away or let it slip away. You can't sell it… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“Yet God has been here all along, shaping us and being shaped by us in no particular way or in too many… — Octavia E. Butler Chaos Copy Share Image
“His mistake was in seeing her as a young girl. She was already a missile, armed and targeted.” — Octavia E. Butler Failure Copy Share Image
I learned that five- and-six-year-old kids have already figured out how to be intolerant. — Octavia E. Butler Child Copy Share Image
“Partnership is giving, taking, learning, teaching, offering the greatest possible benefit while doing the least possible harm.” — Octavia E. Butler Education Copy Share Image
“She went to him. She adjusted, became a quieter more subdued person. She didn't kill, but she seemed to die a little.” — Octavia E. Butler Acceptance Copy Share Image
“Or it's happening because Shori is black, and racists—probably Ina racists—don't like the idea that a good part of the answer to… — Octavia E. Butler Racism Copy Share Image
“I’m still learning how dogged people can be in denial, even when their freedom or their lives are at stake.” — Octavia E. Butler Denial Copy Share Image
“It was milk that had sickened her. Animal milk! These people cooked many things with animal milk!” — Octavia E. Butler Sickened Copy Share Image
If vampires were a separate species, and they were into genetic engineering, what would they engineer for? — Octavia E. Butler Biology Copy Share Image
Science fiction, extrasensory perception, and black people are judged by the worst elements they produce. — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“First learning, then proving I’d learned. Knowing and using the knowledge aren’t the same thing.” — Octavia E. Butler Education Copy Share Image
“That's what Humans are, too, don't forget. People who poison each other, then disclaim all responsibility.” — Octavia E. Butler Nature of man Copy Share Image
“Rufus had caused her trouble, and now he had been rewarded for it. It made no sense. No matter how kindly he… — Octavia E. Butler Heart Copy Share Image
“Get focused on arranging to survive so that we can do more than just get batted around by crazy people, desperate people,… — Octavia E. Butler Crazy people Copy Share Image
People who think about time travel stories sometimes think that going back in time would be fun because you would have all… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“Self is. Self is body and bodily perception. Self is thought, memory, belief. Self creates. Self destroys. Self learns, discovers, becomes. Self… — Octavia E. Butler Faith Copy Share Image
