“So what? You have to teach people how to touch you?” I” — Octavia E. Butler Education Copy Share Image
“They're desperate or crazy or both. That's enough to make anyone dangerous.” — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of "wrong" ideas.” — Octavia E. Butler Repressive 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
“Partnership is giving, taking, learning, teaching, offering the greatest possible benefit while doing the least possible harm.” — Octavia E. Butler Education 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
“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
“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
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
“The essentials," I answered, "are to learn to shape God with forethought, care, and work; to educate and benefit their community, their… — 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
“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
“I'd rather see the others." "What others?" "The ones who make it. The ones living in freedom now." "If any do." "They… — Octavia E. Butler Freedom Copy Share Image
“At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow… — Octavia E. Butler Creativity 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
“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
“Writing is difficult. You do it all alone without encouragement and without any certainty that you'll ever be published or paid or… — Octavia E. Butler Gifts Copy Share Image
“Is any of this real? Dangerous question. Sometimes I don’t know the answer. I doubt myself. I doubt what I think I… — Octavia E. Butler Art of life Copy Share Image
“Ooan?” I said. I hadn’t called it that for years. My older siblings called our parents by their names, and I had… — Octavia E. Butler Older sibling Copy Share Image
“Let them see that you trust them & let them solve their own problems, make their own decisions.Do that & they will… — Octavia E. Butler Control Copy Share Image
“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and… — Octavia E. Butler Inspiration Copy Share Image
“I mean, that guy who wants to be President, that Jarret, he would call you all heathens or pagans or something." Indeed,… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“Jarret condemns the burnings, but does so in such mild language that his people are free to hear what they want to… — Octavia E. Butler Copy Share Image
“The word “ooloi” could not be translated directly into English because its meaning was as complex as Nikanj’s scent. “Treasured stranger.” “Bridge.”… — Octavia E. Butler Birth mother Copy Share Image
“God is Change. Earthseed: The Books of the Living Lauren Oya Olamina” — Octavia E. Butler Books 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
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
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
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
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
