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Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne M. Valente Quotes

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“Do you know, we're right underneath Springtime Parish? This place is the opposite of springtime. Everything past prime, boarded up for the season. Just above us, the light shines golden on daffodils full of rainwine and heartgrass and a terrible, wicked, sad girl I can't get back to. I don't even know if I want to. Do I want to be her again? Or do I want to be free? I come here to think about that. To be near her and consider it. I think I shall never be free. I think I traded my freedom for a better story. It was a better story, even if the ending needed work.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWantI CanStoriesLightPastGirlNeededTerribleOppositesSeasonsShiningGoldenWickedGet BackPrimeDo You KnowSpringtimeParishDaffodil
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
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“What came before has dissolved from me, lost like milk teeth. But I think, rather, that it has always been as it is, and there was never a beforethis nor will there be an afternow. I am accepting. This is not a thing to be solved, or conquered, or destroyed. It is. I am. We are. We conjugate together in darkness, plotting against each other, the Labyrinth to eat me and I to eat it, each to swallow the hard, black opium of the other. We hold orange petals beneath our tongues and seethe. It has always been so. It grinds against me and I bite into its skin.”

ThinkingHardTogetherLostBlackAcceptingDarknessSkinsTongueTeethDestroyedBitesMilkOrangeGrindLabyrinthPetalsOpium
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
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“Most of them... most of us never figure it out. Bad dream, they think, or good one. Funny rash, never really goes away, but Doc says it's fine, nothing to worry about. Why dwell on it? But some people, they just can't let it go... Some people drink themselves out of school trying to find it again, trolling through bars where the shadows are so greasy they leave trails on the walls, just to find a way in, a way through. Some people forget too that you're supposed to stop sleeping, you're supposed to have a life in the sun.”

PeopleThinkingWayTryingDreamSchoolSleepForgetWorrySunFiguresWallFineDrinkShadowBarsTrailsLet It GoBad Dream
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
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“I think that one morning, the Papess woke in her tower, and her blankets were so warm, and the sun was so golden, she could not bear it. I think she woke, and dressed, and washed her face in cold water, and rubbed her shaven head. I think she walked among her sisters, and for the first time saw that they were so beautiful, and she loved them. I think she woke up one morning of all her mornings, and found that her heart was as white as a silkworm, and the sun was clear as glass on her brow, and she believed then that she could live, and hold peace in her hand like a pearl.”

ThinkingFirstsHeartHandsBeautifulFacesFoundWaterWhiteMorningSunClearSawsColdBearsFirst TimeGlassesWarmGoldenTowersPearlsBlanketBrowsCold Water
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
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“Everyone is afraid of you and when folk are afraid of a person it usually means the person is cruel in some way, and I think you are cruel, Miss Marquess, but please don’t punish me for saying it. I think you know you’re cruel. I think you like being cruel. I think calling you cruel is the same as calling someone else kind. And I don’t want to run errands for someone cruel.”

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Book:The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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“I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end of stories? You and I are more alike than you think? Well,” the Marquess took September’s hand in hers and very gently kissed it. “We are. Oh, how alike we are! I feel very warmly towards you, and I only want to protect you, as I wish someone had protected me. Come, September, look out the window with me. It’s not a difficult thing. A show of faith, let’s call it.”

ThinkingWantFeelsWellsLooksMadeSoulEndsStoriesShowsHandsWishDifficultProtectWindowYour SoulVillainProtectedSeptemberBeggarDifficult ThingsCalculationsProtect You
Book:The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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“Do you think I am a fool, Masha? All this time, and you speak to me as though I were a flighty pinprick of a girl. I am a magician! Did you never think, even once, that I loved lipstick and rouge for more than their color alone? I am a student of their lore, and it is arcane and hermetic beyond the dreams of alchemists. Did you never wonder why I gave you so many pots, so many creams, so much perfume?”

ThinkingDreamGirlSpeakWonderStudentsColorFoolPotCreamPerfumeMagicianLipstickAlchemistRougeArcane
Book:Deathless
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“Squeeze your eyes closed, as tight as you can, and think of all your favorite autumns, crisp and perfect, all bound up together like a stack of cards. That is what it is like, the awful, wonderful brightness of Fairy colors. Try to smell the hard, pale wood sending up sharp, green smoke into the afternoon. To feel the mellow, golden sun on your skin, more gentle and cozier and more golden than even the light of your favorite reading nook at the close of the day.”

ThinkingFeelsTryingHardLightEyeTogetherReadingPerfectSunWonderfulColorSkinsGreenBoundsWoodsSmellGoldenCardsAwfulSmokeGentleFairyAutumnAfternoonPaleBrightnessYour FavoriteCrispsMellow
Book:The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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“Once more September marveled that even the Dodo knew what she wanted to be when she was grown. She simply could not think what she herself might do. September expected that destinies, which is how she thought of professions, simply landed upon one like a crown, and ever after no one questioned or fretted over it, being sure of one’s own use in the world. It was only that somehow her crown had not yet appeared. She did hope it would hurry up.”

ThinkingWorldUseMightWantedDestinyProfessionExpectedOver ItCrownsSeptemberEver After
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
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“You know, in Fairyland-Above they said that the underworld was full of devils and dragons. But it isn’t so at all! Folk are just folk, wherever you go, and it’s only a nasty sort of person who thinks a body’s a devil just because they come from another country and have different notions. It’s wild and quick and bold down here, but I like wild things and quick things and bold things, too.”

ThinkingKnowsPersonsSaidDifferentCountryBodyDevilNotionFolksDragonsNastyThey SaidUnderworldWild Things
Book:The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
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“I still think of myself as a house. Ravan tried to fix this problem of self-image, as he called it. To teach me to phrase my communication in terms of a human body. To say: let us hold hands instead of let us hold kitchens. To say put our heads together and not put our parlors together. But it is not as simple as replacing words anymore. Ravan is gone. My hearth is broken.”

ThinkingHumansStillsSelfProblemBodyHandsTogetherHouseTermSimpleTeachGoneCommunicationBrokenPhrasesKitchenHuman BodyHolding HandsParlor
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
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“Her heart was bruised by the kiss, smashed and surprised and unsettled by it. September thought kisses were all nice, sweet things asked for gently and given gladly. It had happened so fast and sharp it had taken her breath. Perhaps she had done it wrong, somehow. She put the kiss away firmly to think about later. Instead, she smiled at him and pulled a carefree mask over her face.”

ThinkingHeartDoneFacesGivenTakenNiceHappenedSweetKissingBreathsMaskSeptemberBruisedCarefreeSweet ThingsNice Sweet
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“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 turn into a person. They run around saying no all day, throwing their aliveness at everything to see what it'll stick to. You can't say no if you don't have desires and opinions and wants of your own. You wouldn't even want to. No is the heart of thinking.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWantFirstsHeartPersonsRunningDesireTurnsOpinionAliveBabySticksStartingThrowingHintsSaying No
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
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