Her heart was bruised by the kiss, smashed and surprised and unsettled by it. September thought kisses were all nice, sweet things… — 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
It's saying no. That's your first hint that something's alive. It says no. That's how you know a baby is starting to… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so frightfully strong and tight… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
She is so stubborn, her heart has an argument with her head every time it wants to beat. — 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
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
I think that one morning, the Papess woke in her tower, and her blankets were so warm, and the sun was so… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
But her heart was so cold that she could hold ice in her mouth and it would never melt. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
You are going to break your promise. I understand. And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart, so that… — 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
This is what comes of having a heart, even a very small and young one. It causes no end of trouble, and… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Her heart ached as though a knife had quietly slipped between her ribs. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else. — 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
September did not want to feel for the Marquess. That’s how villains get you, she knew. You feel badly for them, and… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
You cannot escape where you come from, September. Some part of it remains inside you always, like the slender white heart in… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Marya Morevna! Don't you know anything? Girls must be very, very careful to care only for ribbons and magazines and wedding rings.… — 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
You're not in love if you keep your own heart bricked up behind your bones. You're only playing. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Some girls have to go to college to discover what they are good at; some are born doing what they must without… — 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
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
Marya Morevna, we are better at this than you are. We can hold two terrible ideas at once in our hearts. Never… — 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
