Quotes from Henry Kuttner

Shut up, Ray.

A long time ago I lived in Lisbon,' she said, in softly slurred Portuguese that made the name of the city Leesh-boa. 'But before that, meus neto, my tribe was in the mountains where there are only old things, like the trees and the rocks and the streams. There are truths to be learned from the old things -' She hesitated, and her brown, shrunken claw closed over Pete's hand. 'Do you know the truth, Pedrinho?' (Before I Wake...)

God himself can't change the future and still know what's going to happen.

What he'd find there, of course, was up to Pete. But he was sure there were magicians in Tampico and leopard-skins and golden thrones in Juba. Dragons and pirates and white temples where magic dwelt. And best of all, the places he didn't know about yet, the ones that would come as surprises. Oh, not entirely pleasant surprises. There should be a hint of peril, a touch of terror, to emphasize the brightness of adventure... (Before I Wake...)

No adult would have done what Bobby did -- but a child is of a different species. By adult standards, a child is not wholly sane.

One child alone might have had violent hysterics. But Charles, who made the first discoveries, was only six, still young enough so that the process of going insane in that particular way wasn't possible for him. A six-year-old is in a congenitally psychotic state; it is normal to him.

Go therefore fearlessly, since god cannot conquer god, but only man who created him.

Men can know the nature of things

She was suffering the first pang of maturity's burden, the knowledge of responsibility misused.

LEFT LEFT LEFT a wife and SEVenteen children in STARVing condition with NOTHing but gingerbread