Catherynne M. Valente Quotes

Never put your faith in a Prince. When you require a miracle, trust in a Witch.

I’m very touchy feely with my fandom, in part because they’ve never done me wrong or hurt me in any way. This is an awesome balance. I hope it stays that way forever.

It seems like every few years a big name author will holler something about how evil, heinous, and morally wrong fan fiction and fan fiction writers are, and then the Internet gets all upset and shocked, and then the author is shocked that people could get so upset.

But her heart was so cold that she could hold ice in her mouth and it would never melt.

Metamorphosis is the most profound of all acts.

I try to hurt myself, to sprain something, writing every novel and story, because I’m stretching for something new and difficult that I haven’t done before.

It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.

Every writing teacher I ever had except for one told me I was an awful writer, had no idea what I was doing, and should stop immediately. It only took the one to tell me something different to light a fire under me.

Vampires should be pretty much like mean girls, all the time, only amazing at it. Flawless. They’ve had time.

She was beautiful and terrifying, savage and pure.

I wish you the best that can be hoped for, and no worse than can be expected.

Everybody’s strange everywhere. Most of the trick of being a social animal is pretending you’re not. But who do you fool? Nobody worth talking to.

I have always been delighted when told there was a piece of fanfic inspired by a book of mine floating about. I don’t read it for legal reasons, but I’m thrilled to know it’s there. Someone cared. Someone loved it enough to spend their free time writing about it for free.

Just about every science whiz can tell you how he or she took apart the TV or the radio when they were kids just to see how it worked. To see what the world was made of. Well, when I was a kid, I took apart fairy tales to see how they worked. To see what the world was made of.

…For grace may only be found briefly, and always in the midst of madness.

I looked at this man and thought: Oh, how we are going to hurt each other.

I’m a monster,” said the shadow of the Marquess suddenly. “Everyone says so.” The Minotaur glanced up at her. “So are we all, dear,” said the Minotaur kindly. “The thing to decide is what kind of monster to be. The kind who builds towns or the kind who breaks them.

Everyone has a right to cry uncle on a genre every once in awhile. I’ve done it myself. Sometimes you just can’t bear another gear or pair of wings or vampire teeth. You go on a fast, and sometimes you come back, and sometimes you don’t.