N. K. Jemisin quotes - page 3
The pasts that I draw upon tend to be mythic pasts. I'm not super interested in writing historical fantasy. I have done that a few times in the case of subject areas that I felt like should have been explored more, like the Haitian Revolution, for example. But for the most part, I'm more interested in exploring the gods that we could have had. Or these are the creation myths that we could have explored. I'm not super interested in existing mythology, though existing mythology does inform just about everything that I'm coming up with. But that's more along the lines of, This is how mythology should be structured, so you need to look at existing mythology to understand that. If I'm trying to come up with a secondary world, the goal is to use not too much of the existing world...
N. K. Jemisin
Even our mortal courtesans have been with gods enough to have acquired a certain ethereal technique.” He smiled a salesman's smile, though it never once touched his eyes.
"That's what you're selling. Not sex, but divinity.” I frowned. "Gods, Ahad, at least worship is free.”
"It was never free.” His smile vanished. It hadn't been real, anyway. "Every mortal who offered a god devotion wanted something in exchange for it-blessings, a guaranteed place in the heavens, status. And every god who demanded worship expected loyalty and more, in exchange. So why shouldn't we be honest about what we're doing? At least here, no god lies.
N. K. Jemisin
All energy is the same, through its different states and names. Movement creates heat which is also light that waves like sound which tightens or loosens the atomic bonds of crystal as they hum with strong and weak forces. In mirroring resonance with all of this is magic, the radiant emission of life and death.
N. K. Jemisin
