Quotessence
Home / Authors / Octavia Butler
Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllWritingPeopleIfsThinkingFictionHumansScience FictionStoriesWayFirstsLongWantedFantasyGrowsKnowsMeanNeedsPersistenceBlackDestiny

Famous Octavia Butler Quotes

“It's interesting how many science fiction writers get going when they are very young. I was on a program with Greg Bear and he mentioned that he had gotten started writing when he was eight. And I began writing when I was 10. I think we're influenced by the stuff, we find it and we love it and we're influenced by it....I know I collected my first rejection slip when I was 13, and I went on collecting them for a long time after that.”

ThinkingKnowsWritingFirstsLongYoungStuffInterestingFictionBearsLong TimeProgramScience FictionEightRejectionSlipsCollectingFiction Writers
Author:Octavia Butler
Create image

“People who want to write either do it or they don't. At last I began to say that my most important talent - or habit - was persistence. Without it, I would have given up writing long before I finished my first novel. It's amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up.”

PeopleIfsWantGivingWritingFirstsLongImportantLastsGivenCan DoNovelTalentHabitGiving UpRefuseFinishedBrilliantPersistenceGiven Up
Book:Bloodchild and Other Stories
Create image

“We need the stars... We need purpose! We need the image the Destiny to take root among the stars gives us of ourselves as a purposeful, growing species. We need to become the adult species that the Destiny can help us become! If we're to be anything other than smooth dinosaurs who evolve, specialize and die, we need the stars.... When we have no difficult, long-term purpose to strive toward, we fight each other. We destroy ourselves. We have these chaotic, apocalyptic periods of murderous craziness.”

IfsNeedsGivingLongHelpingPurposeDiesFightingStarsDifficultTermSpaceDestinyGrowingPeriodsAdultsRootsSpeciesStriveEvolveLong TermSmoothChaoticDinosaursCrazinessApocalyptic
Author:Octavia Butler
Create image