“You couldn't ever really fix a sad story. You could only make another. And another. And another, until you found the right… — 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
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 don’t want to be a Princess,” she said finally. “You can’t make me be one.” She knew very well what became… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
The old order, it is good for the old. A farmer wants his son to be afraid of beautiful women, so that… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself like watercolors. — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Don’t you ever feel like you’re just a story someone is telling about someone like you?” — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
All stories must end so, with the next tale winking out of the corners of the last pages, promising more, promising moonlight… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Do you know, we're right underneath Springtime Parish? This place is the opposite of springtime. Everything past prime, boarded up for the… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
But this is a story, and in a story there is always someone beautiful enough." - 'The Girl with Two Skins' from… — 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
Oh, September! It is so soon for you to lose your friends to good work and strange loves and high ambitions. The… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Stories,' the green-eyed Sigrid said, unperturbed, 'are like prayers. It does not matter when you begin, or when you end, only that… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell war… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
…everything has a narrative, really, and if you can’t understand a story and relate to it, figure out how you fit inside… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the throwing of erasers. This is… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end of stories? You… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“A tale may have exactly three beginnings: one for the audience, one for the artist, and one for the poor bastard who… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“Here’s something I bet you don’t know: every time someone writes a story about a dragon a real dragon dies. Something about… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“History is a funny little creature. Do you remember visiting your old Aunt that autumn when the trees shone so very yellow,… — 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
