Quotes from Octavia E. Butler

Per me i cadaveri sono disgustosi. Puzzano e se sono lì da un po' sono pieni di vermi. Ma in fondo che cosa importa? Sono morti. Non soffrono più e se non ti piacevano quando erano vivi, perché turbarsi tanto ora che sono morti? Cory è rimasta sconvolta. Se la prende con me perché condivido il dolore dei vivi, ma lei cerca di condividerlo con i morti.

She served her people by giving them relief from pain and sickness. Also, she enriched them by allowing them to spread word of her abilities to neighboring people. She was an oracle. A woman through whom a god spoke. Strangers paid heavily for her services. They paid her people, then they paid her. That was as it should have been. Her people could see that they benefited from her presence, and that they had reason to fear her abilities.

Some middle class men prove they're men by having a lot of wives in temporary or permanent relationships. Some upper class men prove they're men by having one wife and a lot of beautiful, disposable young servant girls. Nasty.

Why do you keep trying to kill yourself?" I hadn't expected an answer so I was surprised when she spoke quietly. "Most of the time living just isn't worth the trouble.

To them it's like deliberately causing the conception of a child who is so defective that it must die in infancy.

So much agony caused, so much evil done in God's name.

It's a good thing your people don't eat meat. If you did, the way you talk about us, our flavors and your hunger and your need to taste us, I think you would eat us instead of fiddling with our genes." And after a moment of silence, "That might even be better. It would be something we could understand and fight against.

Dad tries to shield us from what goes on in the world, but he can't. Knowing that, he also tries to teach us to shield ourselves.

She went to him. She adjusted, became a quieter more subdued person. She didn't kill, but she died a little.

There's always a lot to do before you get to go to heaven.

ALIVE! Still alive. Alive … again. Awakening was hard, as always. The ultimate disappointment. It was a struggle to take in enough air to drive off nightmare sensations of asphyxiation. Lilith Iyapo lay gasping, shaking with the force of her effort.

Thanks to malnutrition, climate change, poverty, and ignorance, a lot of old diseases are back, and some of them are contagious

The police,' my father told them, 'may be able to avenge you, but they can't protect you.

God, I hate this place. I mean, I love it. It's home. These are my people. But I hate it. It's like an island surrounded by sharks—except that sharks don't bother you unless you go in the water. But our land sharks are on their way in. It's just a matter of how long it takes for them to get hungry enough.

Rape, robbery, and now murder. Of course I think about it. Everyone thinks about it. Everyone worries. I wish I could get out of here.' 'Where would you go?' 'That's it, isn't it? There's nowhere to go.' 'There might be.' 'Not if you don't have money. Not if all you know how to do is take care of babies and cook.

I startled it. No, I shocked it profoundly—and it transmitted to me the full impact of that shock. Its multisensory illusions felt more real than things that actually happened, and this was worse than an illusion. This was a sudden, swift cycling of its own intense surprise and fear. From me to it to me. Closed loop. I

Normal,' I muttered. 'I wonder what that is.

Partnership is giving, taking, learning, teaching, offering the greatest possible benefit while doing the least possible harm. Partnership is mutualistic symbiosis. Partnership is life. Any entity, any process that cannot or should not be resisted or avoided must somehow be partnered. Partner one another. Partner diverse communities. Partner life. Partner any world that is your home. Partner God. Only in partnership can we thrive, grow, Change. Only in partnership can we live.

Stupid faith was good. Thinking and questioning were bad.

We're fifteen! What can we do?' 'We can get ready. That's what we've got to do now. Get ready for what's going to happen, get ready to survive it, get ready to make a life afterward. Get focused on arranging to survive so that we can do more than just get batted around by crazy people, desperate people, thugs, and leaders who don't know what they're doing!

Barbara County. My grandparents' maps helped us explore away from

We'll adapt. We'll have to. God is Change. Strange how much it helps me to remember that.

Like all good works of fiction, it lies like the truth.

It hurts like hell," I warned. He shrugged. "Most things do.