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She was beautiful and terrifying, savage and pure.


Catherynne M. Valente

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It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It's just that in detective stories, women are usually dead before the curtain goes up. In fairy tal...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES For though, as we have said, all children are heartless, this is not precisely true of teenagers. Te...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE This is what comes of having a heart, even a very small and young one. It causes no end of trouble, ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE And the funny, impish magic of a wrap party is that everyone still has scraps of their characters ha...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE And if they thought her aimless, if they thought her a bit mad, let them. It meant they left her alo...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Never put your faith in a Prince. When you require a miracle, trust in a Witch.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Some girls have to go to college to discover what they are good at; some are born doing what they mu...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We treat our stone wives with much more care than they treat their warm ones, anyway. I personally d...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Someone ought to write a novel about me,” said Lebedeva loftily. “I shouldn’t care if they lie...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You gotta be nice to strangers even when they are the worst, because they don't know you well enough...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You are going to break your promise. I understand. And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart, so...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Wishes of one's old life wither and shrivel like old leaves if they are not replaced with new wishes...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE This is what it means to be a woman in this world. Every step is a bargain with pain. Make your blac...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE At the snowy summit of all these things, however, is the fact that you simply cannot go about lockin...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A Wyvern’s body is different from the body of a young girl in several major respects. First, it ha...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE No matter what you write, you actually can't help retelling a fairy tale somewhere along the way...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The storm ate up September’s cry of despair, delighted at its mischief, as all storms are.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE No one knows themselves very well. Who has the time these days? Have you been formally introduced to...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Even if you’ve taken off every stitch of clothing, you still have your secrets, your history, your...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Your past's a private matter, sweetheart. You just keep it locked up in xbox where it can't hurt any...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I’ve a devil of a habit for being right.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE But the thought arrived inside her like a train: Marya Morevna, all in black, here and now, was a po...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Blue is for cruel bargains; green is for daring what you oughtn’t; violet is for brute force. I wi...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Marya Morevna! Don't you know anything? Girls must be very, very careful to care only for ribbons an...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You humans, you know, whoever built you sewed irony into your sinews.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Lebedeva’s eyes shone. “Masha, listen to me. Cosmetics are an extension of the will. Why do you ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We are halves, but we make an infinite whole.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I’m a monster,” said the shadow of the Marquess suddenly. “Everyone says so.”

Th...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE 1. Santa Claus is real. However, your parents are folkloric constructs meant to protect and foritfy ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You can't have whatever you want. But to a child who must ask permission for every single thing,...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE How we would like to argue with September, and tell her that in the waiting lies the pleasure! That ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Humans do not proceed in an orderly fashion from one scene to the next. Memory lies underneath happe...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontie...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Hats have power. Hats can change you into someone else.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I'm not lost, because I haven't any idea where to go that I might get lost on the way to. I'd lik...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency an...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Children make prayers so thoughtlessly, building them up like sand castles—and they are always sur...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It seems like every few years a big name author will holler something about how evil, heinous, and m...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they create unique, unreplicable artifacts or usef...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE ...while epic fantasy is based on the fairy tale of the just war, that’s not one you’ll find in ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Because I’m a cat. A big one, the Panther of Rough Storms, in fact. But still a cat. If there’s ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The sun hitched up her trousers and soldiered on up into the sky. September squinted at it and wonde...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE But this is a story,
and in a story
there is always someone
beautiful enough."
<...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Why do you need that thing?" September asked. "None of the airports back home have them."
"They...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We love WWII because the cause was so obviously just, because you can't be a good person and say you...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE They want only their private toys and candies, and will not share.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Do you know what a thirteen-year-old girl can do when she is alone and frightened and believes she i...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE If you are a monster, stand up.
If you are a monster, a trickster, a fiend,
If you’ve bu...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Because she did not look behind, September did not see the smoky-glass casket close itself primly up...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Metamorphosis is the most profound of all acts.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE 8. Santa Claus is concerned about the problem of Arctic ice. The ice is the spouse of the elves, and...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Shall I tell her? Shall I be a kind and merciful narrator and take our girl aside? Shall I touch her...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A heart can learn ever so many tricks, and what sort of beast it becomes depends greatly upon whethe...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE But the trick most folk are so awfully fond of learning, the absolute second they've got hold of a h...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I am certainly intrepid and splendid and sordid and strong; I can see why you'd want me! But I'm afr...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You only had to choose which me to talk to, for, you know, we all change our manners, depending on w...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Her heart was bruised by the kiss, smashed and surprised and unsettled by it. September thought kiss...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She felt as she often did in class when she was nearly sure she had the right answer, but could not ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE One: A Library Is the Size of the Universe and the Universe Is the Size of a Library. Two: Everyone ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Children are natural practitioners of the Queer and the Questing, for childhood is nothing but a que...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I'm sure you've heard people talk about their Heart's Desire—well that's a load of rot. Hearts are...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You cannot escape where you come from, September. Some part of it remains inside you always, like th...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE September did not want to feel for the Marquess. That’s how villains get you, she knew. You feel b...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Do you suppose you will look the same when you are an old woman as you do now? Most folk have three ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE And then she felt her Ell’s great strong presence beside her, and Saturday slipped his hand in her...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Oh, September! It is so soon for you to lose your friends to good work and strange loves and high am...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I have missed you so much I could kiss you,” he whispered.

September’s face fell. “...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You know, in Fairyland-Above they said that the underworld was full of devils and dragons. But it is...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She must protect herself. There would be no one to do it for her. A plan started to prick up its ear...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A labyrinth, when it is big enough, is just the world.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The smell of loving is a difficult one to describe, but if you think of the times when someone has h...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Cats don’t have dark sides. That’s all a shadow is—and though you might be prejudiced against ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Shows what you know, sunny-girl! I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about their Heart’s Desire�...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE That's Venus, September thought. She was the goddess of love. It's nice that love comes on first thi...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE September had never been betrayed before. She did not even know what to call the feeling in her ches...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I don’t want to be a Princess,” she said finally. “You can’t make me be one.” She knew ver...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A library is never complete. That’s the joy of it. We are always seeking one more book to add to o...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She did not know yet how sometimes people keep parts of themselves hidden and secret, sometimes wick...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A book is a door, you know. Always and forever. A book is a door into another place and another hear...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The keeping of lists was for November an exercise kin to repeating of a rosary. She considered it ne...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Who told you you couldn't come back when you're grown? Was it the same person who told you grown-ups...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I wonder sometimes what the memory of God looks like. Is it a palace of infinite rooms, a chest of m...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove i...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Thieves are not so bad, and killing wears all possible costumes. There is no death, no murder that i...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE No good thing can last forever, because people are terrible and we have this feeling, we all have th...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Even if you hadn't entirely deposed (and possibly killed) not one but two governments and d...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Woman! Come out! I have—" She looked down at the bloodless grass, embarrassed. "I have come to res...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Fate is a woman, I said to them. In fact, she is three women. Young, like us, so that they will have...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE

More Catherynne M. Valente

For though, as we have said, all children are heartless, this is not precisely true of teenagers. Te...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE This is what comes of having a heart, even a very small and young one. It causes no end of trouble, ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE And the funny, impish magic of a wrap party is that everyone still has scraps of their characters ha...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It's just that in detective stories, women are usually dead before the curtain goes up. In fairy tal...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE And if they thought her aimless, if they thought her a bit mad, let them. It meant they left her alo...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Never put your faith in a Prince. When you require a miracle, trust in a Witch.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Some girls have to go to college to discover what they are good at; some are born doing what they mu...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We treat our stone wives with much more care than they treat their warm ones, anyway. I personally d...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Someone ought to write a novel about me,” said Lebedeva loftily. “I shouldn’t care if they lie...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You gotta be nice to strangers even when they are the worst, because they don't know you well enough...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You are going to break your promise. I understand. And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart, so...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Wishes of one's old life wither and shrivel like old leaves if they are not replaced with new wishes...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE This is what it means to be a woman in this world. Every step is a bargain with pain. Make your blac...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE At the snowy summit of all these things, however, is the fact that you simply cannot go about lockin...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A Wyvern’s body is different from the body of a young girl in several major respects. First, it ha...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE No matter what you write, you actually can't help retelling a fairy tale somewhere along the way...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The storm ate up September’s cry of despair, delighted at its mischief, as all storms are.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE No one knows themselves very well. Who has the time these days? Have you been formally introduced to...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Even if you’ve taken off every stitch of clothing, you still have your secrets, your history, your...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Your past's a private matter, sweetheart. You just keep it locked up in xbox where it can't hurt any...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I’ve a devil of a habit for being right.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE But the thought arrived inside her like a train: Marya Morevna, all in black, here and now, was a po...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Blue is for cruel bargains; green is for daring what you oughtn’t; violet is for brute force. I wi...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Marya Morevna! Don't you know anything? Girls must be very, very careful to care only for ribbons an...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You humans, you know, whoever built you sewed irony into your sinews.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Lebedeva’s eyes shone. “Masha, listen to me. Cosmetics are an extension of the will. Why do you ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We are halves, but we make an infinite whole.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I’m a monster,” said the shadow of the Marquess suddenly. “Everyone says so.”

Th...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE 1. Santa Claus is real. However, your parents are folkloric constructs meant to protect and foritfy ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You can't have whatever you want. But to a child who must ask permission for every single thing,...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE How we would like to argue with September, and tell her that in the waiting lies the pleasure! That ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Humans do not proceed in an orderly fashion from one scene to the next. Memory lies underneath happe...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontie...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Hats have power. Hats can change you into someone else.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I'm not lost, because I haven't any idea where to go that I might get lost on the way to. I'd lik...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency an...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Children make prayers so thoughtlessly, building them up like sand castles—and they are always sur...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It seems like every few years a big name author will holler something about how evil, heinous, and m...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they create unique, unreplicable artifacts or usef...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE ...while epic fantasy is based on the fairy tale of the just war, that’s not one you’ll find in ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Because I’m a cat. A big one, the Panther of Rough Storms, in fact. But still a cat. If there’s ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The sun hitched up her trousers and soldiered on up into the sky. September squinted at it and wonde...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE But this is a story,
and in a story
there is always someone
beautiful enough."
<...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Why do you need that thing?" September asked. "None of the airports back home have them."
"They...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We love WWII because the cause was so obviously just, because you can't be a good person and say you...
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CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Do you know what a thirteen-year-old girl can do when she is alone and frightened and believes she i...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE If you are a monster, stand up.
If you are a monster, a trickster, a fiend,
If you’ve bu...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Because she did not look behind, September did not see the smoky-glass casket close itself primly up...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Metamorphosis is the most profound of all acts.
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CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.
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CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A heart can learn ever so many tricks, and what sort of beast it becomes depends greatly upon whethe...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE But the trick most folk are so awfully fond of learning, the absolute second they've got hold of a h...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I am certainly intrepid and splendid and sordid and strong; I can see why you'd want me! But I'm afr...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You only had to choose which me to talk to, for, you know, we all change our manners, depending on w...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Her heart was bruised by the kiss, smashed and surprised and unsettled by it. September thought kiss...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She felt as she often did in class when she was nearly sure she had the right answer, but could not ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE One: A Library Is the Size of the Universe and the Universe Is the Size of a Library. Two: Everyone ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Children are natural practitioners of the Queer and the Questing, for childhood is nothing but a que...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I'm sure you've heard people talk about their Heart's Desire—well that's a load of rot. Hearts are...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You cannot escape where you come from, September. Some part of it remains inside you always, like th...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE September did not want to feel for the Marquess. That’s how villains get you, she knew. You feel b...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Do you suppose you will look the same when you are an old woman as you do now? Most folk have three ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE And then she felt her Ell’s great strong presence beside her, and Saturday slipped his hand in her...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Oh, September! It is so soon for you to lose your friends to good work and strange loves and high am...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I have missed you so much I could kiss you,” he whispered.

September’s face fell. “...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You know, in Fairyland-Above they said that the underworld was full of devils and dragons. But it is...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She must protect herself. There would be no one to do it for her. A plan started to prick up its ear...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A labyrinth, when it is big enough, is just the world.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The smell of loving is a difficult one to describe, but if you think of the times when someone has h...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Cats don’t have dark sides. That’s all a shadow is—and though you might be prejudiced against ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Shows what you know, sunny-girl! I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about their Heart’s Desire�...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE That's Venus, September thought. She was the goddess of love. It's nice that love comes on first thi...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE September had never been betrayed before. She did not even know what to call the feeling in her ches...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I don’t want to be a Princess,” she said finally. “You can’t make me be one.” She knew ver...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A library is never complete. That’s the joy of it. We are always seeking one more book to add to o...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She did not know yet how sometimes people keep parts of themselves hidden and secret, sometimes wick...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE A book is a door, you know. Always and forever. A book is a door into another place and another hear...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE The keeping of lists was for November an exercise kin to repeating of a rosary. She considered it ne...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Who told you you couldn't come back when you're grown? Was it the same person who told you grown-ups...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I wonder sometimes what the memory of God looks like. Is it a palace of infinite rooms, a chest of m...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove i...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Thieves are not so bad, and killing wears all possible costumes. There is no death, no murder that i...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE No good thing can last forever, because people are terrible and we have this feeling, we all have th...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Even if you hadn't entirely deposed (and possibly killed) not one but two governments and d...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Woman! Come out! I have—" She looked down at the bloodless grass, embarrassed. "I have come to res...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Fate is a woman, I said to them. In fact, she is three women. Young, like us, so that they will have...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Trouble is, most times, when you go looking to sell your soul, nobody's buying.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I’m not a Knight. I’m a Bishop. Or at least I am trying to be. And traveling with you is the mos...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE All things are strange which are worth knowing.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE And there’s nothing wrong with spinsters, anyway. They have nice cats and little bowls full of can...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Men die. It's practically what they're for.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I do not tolerate a world emptied of you. I have tried. For a year I have called every black tree Ma...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Just about every science whiz can tell you how he or she took apart the TV or the radio when they we...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We think . . . that girls ought to sing. They ought to sing, and dance while they're singing. But...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Funny how "question" contains the word "quest" inside it, as though any small question asked is a jo...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It's funny, you know, they're always telling me to be a man, take it like a man, act like a man, lik...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It is true that novelists are shameless and obey no decent law, and they are not to be trusted on an...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Robots are like Mars: they need
girls.
Boys won't do;
the memesoup is all wrong. The...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I’ve read science fiction and fantasy all my life – though when you’re a child, they just call...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Have you never known a cruel wind? What an easy, balmy, tropical life you must have! I never tease, ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I'm very touchy feely with my fandom, in part because they've never done me wrong or hurt me...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Where there is a Key, there is yet hope.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I am the plague which will burn through the marrow of the Anointed City.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE When one is traveling, everything looks brighter and lovelier. That does not mean it IS brighter and...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell wa...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE This is my heart—carry it with you. I will dream of you in the dark, and you will taste it in my t...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Recite the Periodic Table of Teatime, in correct order, with Elemental Symbols, please.'
A-Thro...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE When she spoke, the words were rote, taught to her by her captors, dead and empty, and forced. But h...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Whenever one does extraordinary things, someone is bound to try to repeat them for themselves. It's ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You'll forgive the flowery talk, won't you? Our family does so love to be told they are beautiful. V...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It appeals to the higher nature of the self to put aside food which once lived - I do not consider m...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Some thought he was quite wicked, but in truth, he was no more or less than any other crow: enamored...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Well," the Marsh King pursed his beak politely, "at any rate, your manliness need only last for a re...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She who invented words, and yet does not speak; she who brings dreams and visions, yet does not slee...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Never assume that a woman is wicked simply because she is ugly and behaves unfavorably towards you. ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Love, I've never been anyone's mother; I don't know how to talk to young or old. But don't stop smil...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself li...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Then he is a monster!" the Prince crowed, "and I must slay him at once. The Formula works!"
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Well enough. I won't ask you if your love is true or any of that rot—it's not my place to judge. A...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE ...her cry is a hook and it catches me in the throat.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You think I am so wicked, don't you? A monster. Unnatural. How cruel of me to keep you here and ratt...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I perceive that you have a cruel heart, my child. It lies within your breast like a smoldering blade...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE However wretched her origins, she chose freely to continue her crimes against us from the moment she...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You know how we can be about things which sparkle and shine. We imagine they will put back something...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Yes, yes, mistress, I shall go and accomplish your task. Only—I was not only sent to kill the Leuc...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Stories,' the green-eyed Sigrid said, unperturbed, 'are like prayers. It does not matter when you be...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE You wanted Death? This is it. Dirt and decay, nothing more. Death translates us all into earth.” H...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE It is best in the end to let women see to their own vengeance.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Maidens stand still, they are lovely statues and all admire them. Witches do not stand still. I was ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I am a Prince," he replied, being rather dense. "It is the function of a Prince—value A—to kill ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE We all have someone we think shines so much more than we do that we are not even a moon to their sun...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE She is so stubborn, her heart has an argument with her head every time it wants to beat.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Here’s something I bet you don’t know:
every time someone writes a story about a dragon CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE From that day forward she never used my name. Eventually I forgot it. Mrs. H called me something new...
CATHERYNNE M VALENTE Your Eve was wise, John. She knew that Paradise would make her mad, if she were to live forever with...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE He didn't even know how to talk about it. He had practiced not talking about the things he knew unti...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I got a heart like a half bottle of no-label whiskey.
Nothing to brag on,
but enough for y...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE No one belongs when they are new to this world. All children are Changelings.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Readers will always insist on adventures, and though you can have grief without adventures, you cann...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Everyone has a right to cry uncle on a genre every once in awhile. I've done it myself. Sometime...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Every writing teacher I ever had except for one told me I was an awful writer, had no idea what I wa...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I have always been delighted when told there was a piece of fanfic inspired by a book of mine floati...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I try to hurt myself, to sprain something, writing every novel and story, because I'm stretching...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Fantasy is my heart and love. And I just want to play in that garden for the rest of my life.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Every morning is a battle between the superego and the id, and I am a mere foot soldier with mud and...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Monsters almost always are culture's way of working out their fears and are thus inherently incr...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Vampires should be pretty much like mean girls, all the time, only amazing at it. Flawless. They'...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE For most of us, fanfiction is a non-issue. Even for midlist writers. We will never be popular enough...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I savor bitterness - it is born of experience. It is the privilege of one who has truly lived.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE PERCIVAL: Now, who is telling the story?
SEVERIN: The camera is telling the story. It's watchin...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Night poured itself down my throat. Night was my wine and my meat. Night wed me and bedded me, widow...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I have all the books I could need, and what more could I need than books?
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Don't be superior. Everyone drinks blood. Blood is a word that means alive. You can do without almos...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I see you go bare-shod. This is most likely extremely sensible. Shoes are no end of trouble for girl...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I am not a toy, September! Fairyland cannot just cast me aside when it’s finished playing with me!...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE Listen to me. Love is a Yeti. It is bigger than you and frightening and terrible. It makes loud and ...
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE I was better than a punk. I was a protaganist.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE IN THE REFRIGERATOR MONOLOGUES Why not say it? I'm bursting out of my cocoon. It was all too nice in the past - it never knocked an...
BENITA VALENTE Inside I have been a stabber, a screamer, a die-er from way back.
BENITA VALENTE Young singers ask me, "Do I have to live in New York?" I say, "You can live wherever you want-as lon...
BENITA VALENTE We're Kansas and the other side is Oz. People think no one lives here. But this is a really active n...
LYNN VALENTE I want to come out of my house and see kids and people enjoying themselves. I grew up in the Marina....
LYNN VALENTE We want a vibrant neighborhood. We want to activate this big, scary empty space.
LYNN VALENTE That's part of farming; you just have to deal with what you have. Every year is different.
JOE VALENTE He asked to borrow my (cell) phone. When he handed it back, it was full of blood.
JOE VALENTE I am a diamond
But people see me as gold
Honestly, I wanna be silver
M -I would die for you
-You lie
-If I lie, why do I stand here before and beg on my knees t...
M Morals; the pathetic answer to authority
Seen two gorillas sharing a banana?
M. COCHET M. I'm not a leftist; I'm where the righteous ought to be.
M. M. COADY I believe in working with songs that have personal value for me.
M. WARD It's no fun for me to cover a song and produce it the exact same way as it already exists. When ...
M. WARD I'm somebody who gets a lot of inspiration from dreams.
M. WARD When you work on a record for three years, it's a great sense of relief when it is finally out i...
M. WARD I wouldn't want to cover a Hank Williams song in a country-western way. It doesn't occur to ...
M. WARD I love the sound of Elmore James, the sound early guitarists like him got just by using minimal mean...
M. WARD I get most of my inspiration from older records and older production styles, and that ends up rearin...
M. WARD I do watch 'American Idol' sometimes. It's not really that pleasurable... I take that ba...
M. WARD I don't really watch TV series because I don't want to get hooked on them and have them suck...
M. WARD The South of France is one of my favorite places in the world.
M. WARD I've worked with just as many talented women as I have talented men, and I feel fortunate enough...
M. WARD I always prefer other people's interpretations over my own, so I'm not very quick to make ex...
M. WARD I definitely don't see myself as much of a singer, because my upbringing is really based around ...
M. WARD I get most of my inspiration from older records. Most of the records that I listen to were probably ...
M. WARD It's a luxury to not have to just be performing with other people to have my music heard.
M. WARD Certain things you have to stumble on to. They can't be preprogrammed.
M. WARD I love the idea that I planned my career. I did not. It started out by getting invitations from arti...
M. WARD I don't like the way recording to digital sounds. Most of the time, when I'm recording to tw...
M. WARD