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Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
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Someone ought to write a novel about me, said Lebedeva loftily. I shouldn't care if they lied to make it more interesting, as long as they were good lies, full of kisses and daring escapes and the occasional act of barbarism. I can't abide a poor liar.
Catherynne M. Valente
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Slowly, without taking his eyes from hers, the man in the black coat knelt before her. I have come for the girl in the window, he said, and his eyes filled with tears
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You look like a winter night", he had told her when he had given it to her. "I could sleep inside the cold of you".
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Relationships required such vigilance, such attention. You had to hold them together by force of will, and other people took up so much space, demanded so much time. It was exhausting.
Catherynne M. Valente
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We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.
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But as has been said, September read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying.
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This is what comes of having a heart, even a very small and young one. It causes no end of trouble, and that's the truth.
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Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so frightfully strong and tight that you end up bound forever in hopeless knots, even to the shadow of a beast you knew and loved long ago.
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I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.
Catherynne M. Valente
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I am a practical girl, and a life is only so long. It should be spent in as much peace and good eating and good reading as possible and no undue excitement. That is all I am after.
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Marya Morevna! Don't you know anything? Girls must be very, very careful to care only for ribbons and magazines and wedding rings. They must sweep their hearts clean of anything but kisses and theater and dancing. They must never read Pushkin; they must never say clever things; they must never have sly eyes or wear their hair loose and wander around barefoot, or they will draw his attention!
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She is so stubborn, her heart has an argument with her head every time it wants to beat.
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You will live as you live anywhere. With difficulty, and grief. Yes, you are dead. And I and my family and everyone, always, forever. All dead, like stones. But what does it matter? You still have to go to work in the morning. You still have to live.
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A library is never complete. That's the joy of it. We are always seeking one more book to add to our collection.
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We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on maps are silly.
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I wouldn't even consider it if I were you. But then if I were you, I would not be me, and if I were not me, I would not be able to advise you, and if I were unable to advise you, you'd do as you like, so you might as well do as you like and have done with it.
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It is best in the end to let women see to their own vengeance.
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No one is now what they were before the war. There's just no getting any of it back.
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Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it.
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He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself like watercolors.
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The storm ate up September's cry of despair, delighted at its mischief, as all storms are.
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That's what happens to friends, eventually. They leave you. It's practically what they're for.
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It is true that novelists are shameless and obey no decent law, and they are not to be trusted on any account, but some Mysteries even they must honor.
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I wish you the best that can be hoped for, and no worse than can be expected.
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Death is not a checkmate…it is more like a carnival trick. You cannot win, no matter how you move your Queen.
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Quote of the day
We owe something to extravagance, for thrift and adventure seldom go hand in hand.
Lady Randolph Churchill
Catherynne M. Valente
Born:
May 5, 1979
(age 44)
Bio:
Catherynne M. Valente is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. For her speculative fiction novels she has won the annual James Tiptree, Andre Norton, and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards.
Known for:
Deathless (2011)
Palimpsest (2009)
Most used words:
heart
september
cruel
love
black
marya
thought
time
girl
death
morevna
war
people
forever
lost
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