“A basic moral imperative is in play here. If you can protect a child, you must.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
But lost children always find each other, in the dark, in the cold. It is as though they are magnetized, and can… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Marya pinned out her childhood like a butterfly. She considered it the way a mathematician considers an equation. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I believe we have an utterly unique specimen on our hands: a child who listens. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Breaking things heals a great many hurts. This is why children do it so often.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“I suppose if you have ten children one of them might go into government, which is the same as losing a child… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“And that is the last lesson of childhood: You spend all your years fighting against the injustice of big folk and their… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Children make prayers so thoughtlessly, building them up like sand castles—and they are always surprised when suddenly the castle becomes real, and… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
For though, as we have said, all children are heartless, this is not precisely true of teenagers. Teenage hearts are raw and… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Children are natural practitioners of the Queer and the Questing, for childhood is nothing but a quest through a queer country. Of… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
You and I, being grown-up and having lost our hearts at least twice or thrice along the way, might shut our eyes… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“I wish for my child to have a mind as stark and wild as the winter, a spirit as clear and fine… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
You can't have whatever you want. But to a child who must ask permission for every single thing, adulthood looks like a… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
That stirring which had fluttered in her on first glimpsing the sea—that stirring landlocked children know so well—moved in her now, with… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Because she did not look behind, September did not see the smoky-glass casket close itself primly up again. She did not see… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Oh, Marya Morevna! Do you know how the church-folk call me, me and my daughter Gamayun, when they paint us on their… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel still sit on… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Oh, September. Such lonely, lost things you find on your way. It would be easier, if you were the only one lost.… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Do you suppose you will look the same when you are an old woman as you do now? Most folk have three… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Real life is all beginnings. Days, weeks, children, journeys, marriages, inventions. Even a murder is the beginning of a criminal. Perhaps even… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“They have to be born, you know," the Third Rail says. "They don't come from nowhere! When a child sits in her… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“You think I am so wicked, don't you? A monster. Unnatural. How cruel of me to keep you here and rattle on… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Children, you must understand, are monsters. They are ravenous, ravening, they lope over the countryside with slavering mouths, seeking love to devour.… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
September had never been betrayed before. She did not even know what to call the feeling in her chest, so bitter and… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Did you see her?" the Marid said nervously, looking at her with great dark eyes. "Our daughter. Standing on the Gear. Dis… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Yet humanity could not conceive. It tried and tried, and called mighty wizards from every corner of its earthly kingdom, but no… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
If one did not have at least a little luck, one would never survive childhood. But luck can be spent, like money;… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I perceive that you have a cruel heart, my child. It lies within your breast like a smoldering blade, hissing steam at… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“She certainly did not see Death stand on her tiptoes and blow a kiss after her, a kiss that rushed through all… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Such lonely, lost things you find on your way. It would be easier, if you were the only one lost. But lost… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Shall I tell her? Shall I be a kind and merciful narrator and take our girl aside? Shall I touch her new,… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“One ought not to judge her: all children are Heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can… — 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 Image
We all just keep moving, September. We keep moving until we stop. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“Truly, Mallow yearned to know everything. Curiosity was part of her, like her short blond hair and bitten fingernails.” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
![“Oh, September. 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. [...] If you would only leave cages locked and…” quote by Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/04d/catherynne-m-valente-375_children_oh-september-such-lonely-lost-things-you_577948.jpg)
