Catherynne M. Valente Quotes
And that is the last lesson of childhood: You spend all your years fighting against the injustice of big folk and their big rules until you are ready to rule yourself.
I shall be as brave as a my Toad, he thought, for my Toad never hides under the bed when she is afraid of lightning or bats. She sticks out her tongue and eats them.
How poor you are, September. You make my heart groan. I know about Homesickness. It begins with H. What will you do?
all children are required to attend School, which is like a party to which everyone forgot to bring punch, or hats, or fiddles, and none of the games have good prizes.
Now, in the Kingdom of School, to be asked into another child's room is like being asked inside their heart.
I will age for you, if it pleases you. I will match you, wrinkle for wrinkle, grey hair for grey hair, crease for crease, wrinkle for wrinkle. You will be so beautiful when you are old.
Night poured itself down my throat. Night was my wine and my meat. Night wed me and bedded me, widowed me and murdered me and resurrected me whole a thousand times over with each hour.
Truly, Mallow yearned to know everything. Curiosity was part of her, like her short blond hair and bitten fingernails.
Every cat knows how to keep his owner feeding them: You may scratch and bite ninety-nine times, but the hundredth time, you must leap into a lap and press your nose to their nose. Rules are for dogs.
Tell it fast before you get scared and silence yourself. You’ll never wish you’d held back a little more.
Rules are for those who can't think of a better way.
Woman! Come out! I have—" She looked down at the bloodless grass, embarrassed. "I have come to rescue you, " she finally said, as if admitting that she were covered in boils.
I'm not afraid of you!' The wombat yelled. 'I saw you get stuck in the washing machine once. Round and round you went! Who's afraid of something that can't defeat a rinse cycle?
The ghosts will eat everything because the bellies of ghosts want the whole world, just to fill one tiny corner.
It is important to announce your intentions at top volume, she thought, or your intentions will think you are ashamed of them.
No, love, in real life you can get all the way to death and never have finished one single story.
But luck withered by conservative, tired, riskless living can be plumped up again--after all, it was only a bit thirsty for something to do.
Flowers are always more serious than they appear.
Being Necessary is food no less than cabbages and strawberry pies.
I am sustained by Being Necessary.
Why should I care about you first kiss, ' he said. 'You can kiss anyone you like. But sometimes if you wanted to kiss me, that would be all right, too.
Time is no one's friend--time has no social niceties and holds the door for nobody nowhere. But I hold the door for time, with my one good paw.
He didn't even know how to talk about it. He had practiced not talking about the things he knew until no man could be called his equal.
Love me, and I will laugh for you, and if you can make me laugh, my laughter will, quite simply, ransom the whole of the world from death.
Are you the only human in the world then? And all of the rest of us monsters?
You'll forgive the flowery talk, won't you? Our family does so love to be told they are beautiful. Vanity is an old and venerable habit.