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Catherynne M. Valente

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Where there is a Key, there is yet hope.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontiersman at the edge of their private world, the strange, incomprehensible world of their interior, filled with customs you could never imitate, a language which sounds like your own but is really totally foreign, knowable only to them.
From Palimpsest
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I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell war stories. A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead.
From Deathless
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Men die. It's practically what they're for.
From Deathless
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In a very real way, television is the new mythos. It defines the world, reinterprets it. The seasons do not change because Persephone goes underground. They change because new episodes air, because sweeps week demands conflagrations and ritual deaths. The television series rises slowly, arcs, descends into hiatus, and rises again with the bright, burning autumn.
From Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It
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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.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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War is not for winning, Masha," sighed Koschei, reading the tracks of supply lines, of pincer strategies, over her shoulder. "It is for surviving.
From Deathless
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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.
From The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
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Robots are like Mars: they need
girls.
Boys won't do;
the memesoup is all wrong. They stomp
when they should kiss
and they're none too keen
on having things shoved inside them...

It's not a robot
until you put a girl inside. Sometimes
I feel like that.
A junkyard
the Company forgot to put a girl in.
From Melancholy of Mechagirl
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She is dead. Almost certainly dead. Nearly conclusively dead. She is, at the very least, not answering her telephone.
From Radiance
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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.
From Deathless
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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.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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The rapt pupil will be forgiven for assuming the Tsar of Death to be wicked and the Tsar of Life to be virtuous. Let the truth be told: There is no virtue anywhere. Life is sly and unscrupulous, a blackguard, wolfish, severe. In service to itself, it will commit any offense. So, too, is Death possessed of infinite strategies and a gaunt nature- but also mercy, also grace and tenderness. In his own country, Death can be kind.
From Deathless
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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.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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How I adore you, Marya. How well I chose. Scold me; deny me. Tell me you want what you want and damn me forever. But don’t leave me.
From Deathless
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Where there is a Key, there is yet hope.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontiersman at the edge of their private world, the strange, incomprehensible world of their interior, filled with customs you could never imitate, a language which sounds like your own but is really totally foreign, knowable only to them.
From Palimpsest
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I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell war stories. A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead.
From Deathless
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Men die. It's practically what they're for.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In a very real way, television is the new mythos. It defines the world, reinterprets it. The seasons do not change because Persephone goes underground. They change because new episodes air, because sweeps week demands conflagrations and ritual deaths. The television series rises slowly, arcs, descends into hiatus, and rises again with the bright, burning autumn.
From Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Death is not a checkmate…it is more like a carnival trick. You cannot win, no matter how you move your Queen.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
War is not for winning, Masha," sighed Koschei, reading the tracks of supply lines, of pincer strategies, over her shoulder. "It is for surviving.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Robots are like Mars: they need
girls.
Boys won't do;
the memesoup is all wrong. They stomp
when they should kiss
and they're none too keen
on having things shoved inside them...

It's not a robot
until you put a girl inside. Sometimes
I feel like that.
A junkyard
the Company forgot to put a girl in.
From Melancholy of Mechagirl
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She is dead. Almost certainly dead. Nearly conclusively dead. She is, at the very least, not answering her telephone.
From Radiance
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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.
From Deathless
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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.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The rapt pupil will be forgiven for assuming the Tsar of Death to be wicked and the Tsar of Life to be virtuous. Let the truth be told: There is no virtue anywhere. Life is sly and unscrupulous, a blackguard, wolfish, severe. In service to itself, it will commit any offense. So, too, is Death possessed of infinite strategies and a gaunt nature- but also mercy, also grace and tenderness. In his own country, Death can be kind.
From Deathless
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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.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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How I adore you, Marya. How well I chose. Scold me; deny me. Tell me you want what you want and damn me forever. But don’t leave me.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Where there is a Key, there is yet hope.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontiersman at the edge of their private world, the strange, incomprehensible world of their interior, filled with customs you could never imitate, a language which sounds like your own but is really totally foreign, knowable only to them.
From Palimpsest
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell war stories. A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Men die. It's practically what they're for.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In a very real way, television is the new mythos. It defines the world, reinterprets it. The seasons do not change because Persephone goes underground. They change because new episodes air, because sweeps week demands conflagrations and ritual deaths. The television series rises slowly, arcs, descends into hiatus, and rises again with the bright, burning autumn.
From Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Death is not a checkmate…it is more like a carnival trick. You cannot win, no matter how you move your Queen.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
War is not for winning, Masha," sighed Koschei, reading the tracks of supply lines, of pincer strategies, over her shoulder. "It is for surviving.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Robots are like Mars: they need
girls.
Boys won't do;
the memesoup is all wrong. They stomp
when they should kiss
and they're none too keen
on having things shoved inside them...

It's not a robot
until you put a girl inside. Sometimes
I feel like that.
A junkyard
the Company forgot to put a girl in.
From Melancholy of Mechagirl
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She is dead. Almost certainly dead. Nearly conclusively dead. She is, at the very least, not answering her telephone.
From Radiance
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The rapt pupil will be forgiven for assuming the Tsar of Death to be wicked and the Tsar of Life to be virtuous. Let the truth be told: There is no virtue anywhere. Life is sly and unscrupulous, a blackguard, wolfish, severe. In service to itself, it will commit any offense. So, too, is Death possessed of infinite strategies and a gaunt nature- but also mercy, also grace and tenderness. In his own country, Death can be kind.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
How I adore you, Marya. How well I chose. Scold me; deny me. Tell me you want what you want and damn me forever. But don’t leave me.
From Deathless
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote