Quote

First, the avid student must be aware that when the world was young it knew only seven things: water, life and death, salt, night, birds and the length of an hour.

Catherynne M. Valente

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Catherynne M. Valente
Age: 45
Born: 1979
Born: May 5
Literary Critic
Novelist
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Seattle
Washington
Cat Valente
Death
Hour
World
Aware
Night
Bird
Young
Seven
Avid
Firsts
Students
Salt
First
Knew
Birds
Must
Hours
Student
Things
Water
Length
Life

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Astolaine Bombast, catalogue woman, ordered up like a rare steak, 'plees make shore she is pritty and a whyt gurl if you have enny'.Well, she's pritty enough for homesteading but takes no ribbons at the fair. After three dead babies that fellow wanted his money back, pack her up in a box and ship her east to the wife factory.
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In both marriage and war you must cut up the things people say like a cake and eat only what you can stomach.
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It's Latin, which is an excellent language for mischief-making, which is why governments are so fond of it.
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Someone ought to write a novel about me.
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We all just keep moving, September. We keep moving until we stop.
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Never trust anyone under one hundred!
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He missed you like a fish in a bowl misses the open sea.
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She did not want to read this book from start to finish, or rather, she thought perhaps it did not want her to. Instead she practiced the art of bibliomancy, trusting the book to show her what it wanted her to know.
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It is true that novelists are shameless and obey no decent law, and they are not to be trusted on any account, but some Mysteries even they must honor.
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I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell war stories. A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead.
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Death stands behind every bride, every groom.
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One can never be sure,” the Green Wind sighed. “There is always the danger of kisses where sleeping maids are concerned. But you are safe now, and for awhile yet, and why worry about a thing that may never come to pass? Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
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Remember this when you are queen,” he whispered hoarsely. “I moved the earth and the water for you.
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Fierce was her needle, and she wore it like a sword.
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Yes, yes, mistress, I shall go and accomplish your task. Only—I was not only sent to kill the Leucrotta. There is a maiden in a tower— At this the Witch spat, again rolling her marvelous eyes. Those revolting creatures are always getting themselves locked up. If only they would stay that way.
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A book is a door, you know. Always and forever. A book is a door into another place and another heart and another world.
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You can never know how your clock runs. But it does run - and always faster than you think.
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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.
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Temptation likes best those who think they have a natural immunity, for it may laugh all the harder when they succumb.
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That’s what a map is, you know. Just a memory.
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