“ 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. Catherynne M. Valente
“ Finally, it was all finished. September was quite proud of herself, and we may be proud of her, too, for certainly I have never made a boat so quickly, and I daresay only one or two of you have ever p… Catherynne M. Valente
“ No one belongs when they are new to this world. All children are Changelings. Catherynne M. Valente
“ You have to have the right sort of stone. Peridot for mothers, girasol for lovers, sapphire for sadness, and garnet for joy. Catherynne M. Valente
“ But that wouldn't be honest. That wouldn't be real. That would give you the idea that a life is a simple thing to tell, that it's obvious where to start--BIRTH--and even more obvious where to stop--DE… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Let us be greedy together; let us hoard. Let us hit each other with birch branches and lock each other in dungeons; let us drink each other's blood in the night and betray each other in the sun. Let u… Catherynne M. Valente
“ I expect everyone in Boston has something like that ring, which is why I am glad I have never been to Boston. Catherynne M. Valente
“ ...while epic fantasy is based on the fairy tale of the just war, that’s not one you’ll find in Grimm or Disney, and most will never recognize the shape of it. I think the fantasy genre pitches its te… Catherynne M. Valente
“ I was meeting a mountain. I meant to kiss her in secret. I meant to wed her under the midnight dark. The prettiest mountain you ever saw, sparkling with snow in all the right places, rich with granite… Catherynne M. Valente
“ You will live as you live in any world,' Madame Lebedeva said. She reached out her hand as if to grasp Marya's, as if to press it to her cheek, then closed her fingers, as if Marya's hand were in hers… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Your past's a private matter, sweetheart. You just keep it locked up in xbox where it can't hurt anyone. Catherynne M. Valente
“ Her father’s shadow looked sadly down at her. “You can never forget what you do in a war, September my love. No one can. You won’t forget your war either. Catherynne M. Valente
“ When I was a young girl, I studied Greek in school. It's a beautiful language and ever so many good things were written in it. When you speak Greek, it feels like a little bird flapping its wings on y… Catherynne M. Valente
“ Oh, September! It is so soon for you to lose your friends to good work and strange loves and high ambitions. The sadness of that is too grown-up for you. Like whiskey and voting, it is a dangerous and… Catherynne M. Valente
“ It is harder, usually, to find a person who wants to walk the streets of me, to taste the teas of my country, to... immigrate, you could say. Catherynne M. Valente
“ Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye. Catherynne M. Valente
“ Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they create unique, unreplicable artifacts or useful items to be sold on a small scale, in a common marketplace where their friends meet and barter. I… Catherynne M. Valente
“ You'll forgive the flowery talk, won't you? Our family does so love to be told they are beautiful. Vanity is an old and venerable habit. Catherynne M. Valente
“ Are you the only human in the world then? And all of the rest of us monsters? Catherynne M. Valente
