Octavia E. Butler Quotes

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.

I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.

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.

Tolerance, like any aspect of peace, is forever a work in progress, never completed, and, if we're as intelligent as we like to think we are, never abandoned.

Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.

I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things.

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.

Listen, no part of me is more definitive of who I am than my brain.

Every story I write adds to me a little, changes me a little, forces me to reexamine an attitude or belief, causes me to research and learn, helps me to understand people and grow.

I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.

I'm Valerie Rye, ' she said, savoring the words. 'It's all right for you to talk to me.

People do blame you for the things they do to you.

I do what I can, ' I said. 'When I can do more, I will. You know that.

BewareAt war Or at peace, More people die Of unenlightened self-interestThan of any other disease

A 10-pound sack of potatoes lasts a long time.

Religion is everywhere. There are no human societies without it, whether they acknowledge it as a religion or not.

I think we need people with stronger ideals than John Kerry or Bill Clinton. I think we need people with more courage and vision.

I'm very happy alone.

There is no endTo what a living worldWill demand of you.

All that you touchYou Change.All that you ChangeChanges you.The only lasting truthis Change.Godis Change.

If you work hard enough at something that doesn’t matter, you can forget for a while about the things that do.

Bloodchild" is my pregnant man story.

Everything is so soft here, ' he said, 'so easy...' 'I know

Prayers only help the person doing the praying, and then, only if they strengthen and focus that person's resolve.

Power came the way a child came -- with agony.

I began writing about power because I had so little.

Read every day and learn from what you read.

Was an eternity of absolute ease just another name for hell?

Consider--We are bornNot with purpose, But with potential.

He rubbed his head again. 'Five years is longer than it sounds. So much longer.

There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.

In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.

God is Change.Earthseed: The Books of the LivingLauren Oya Olamina