Maidens stand still, they are lovely statues and all admire them. Witches do not stand still. I was neither, but better that… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Even if you’ve taken off every stitch of clothing, you still have your secrets, your history, your true name. It’s hard to… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
You will live as you live anywhere. With difficulty, and grief. Yes, you are dead. And I and my family and everyone,… — 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
Because I’m a cat. A big one, the Panther of Rough Storms, in fact. But still a cat. If there’s a saucer… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I still think of myself as a house. Ravan tried to fix this problem of self-image, as he called it. To teach… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Hats change everything. September knew this with all her being, deep in the place where she knew her own name, and that… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Marriage is a wrestling match where you hold on tight while your mate changes into a hundred different things. The trick 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
True names,” said September wonderingly. “These are all true names. Like, when your parents call you to dinner and you don’t come… — 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
She put her hand on her chest. “I have magic yet. If you will set the clock working again, then I must… — 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
