Octavia Butler quotes

I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things. (Octavia Butler)
I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.
Octavia Butler
You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.
Octavia Butler
People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's other people doing the calling that bothers me.
Octavia Butler
I got up to leave. There was nothing more to be said. He had asked for what he knew I could not give, and I had refused.
Octavia Butler
Sometimes, one must become a master to avoid becoming a slave.
Octavia Butler
Helpless lust and unreasoning anxiety were just part of growing up.
Octavia Butler
A tree cannot grow in its parents' shadows.
Octavia Butler
Freedom is dangerous, Cory, but it's precious, too. You can't just throw it away or let it slip away. You can't sell it for bread and pottage.
Octavia Butler
Life is getting better, but that won't stop a war if politicians and business people decide it's to their advantage to have one.
Octavia Butler
I'm literate, and the idea of leaving children illiterate is criminal. (Octavia Butler)
I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. I was able to do anything and there were no walls to hem you in and there was no human condition that you were stopped from examining.
Octavia Butler
The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.
Octavia Butler
Fantasy is totally wide open; all you really have to do is follow the rules you've set. But if you're writing about science, you have to first learn what you're writing about.
Octavia Butler
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.
Octavia Butler
Drowning people Sometimes die Fighting their rescuers.
Octavia Butler
We are born not with purpose, but with potential.
Octavia Butler
Margaret Weylin complained because she couldn't find anything to complain about.
Octavia Butler
To get along with God, Consider the consequences of your behavior. Earthseed: The Books of the Living.
Octavia Butler
You're truly free for the first time. What could be more difficult than that?
Octavia Butler
I wasn't trying to work out my own ancestry. I was trying to get people to feel slavery. I was trying to get across the kind of emotional and psychological stones that slavery threw at people. (Octavia Butler)
The thing about science fiction is that it's totally wide open. But it's wide open in a conditional way.
Octavia Butler
Most of us don't have to worry about being shot of we poke our noses outside. So we are comfortable, but the people I'm writing about are definitely not comfortable, and being shot while they're still inside is a good possibility.
Octavia Butler
All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change.
Octavia Butler
Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.
Octavia Butler