Quote

I would never have been a good scientist - my attention span was too short for that.

Octavia Butler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Octavia Butler
Span
Scientist
Short
Attention
Good
Never
Would

More quotes by Octavia Butler

Image
Most of us don't have to worry about being shot of we poke our noses outside. So we are comfortable, but the people I'm writing about are definitely not comfortable, and being shot while they're still inside is a good possibility.
Octavia Butler
Image
A victim of God may, Through learning adaption, Become a partner of God, A victim of God may, Through forethought and planning, Become a shaper of God. Or a victim of God may, Through shortsightedness and fear, Remain God's victim, God's plaything, God's prey.
Octavia Butler
Image
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.
Octavia Butler
Image
Belief initiates and guides action - or it does nothing.
Octavia Butler
Image
Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.
Octavia Butler
Image
Well, writing was what I wanted to do, it was always what I wanted to do. I had novels to write so I wrote them.
Octavia Butler
Image
No... a novel is a long business. I'm a slow writer, even when I'm doing very well I write slowly.
Octavia Butler
Image
Listen, no part of me is more definitive of who I am than my brain.
Octavia Butler
Image
Once you grow past Mommy and Daddy coming running when you're hurt, you're really on your own. You're alone, and there's no one to help you.
Octavia Butler
Image
All struggles are essentially power struggles. Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles,and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together.
Octavia Butler
Image
Religion is a dangerous prod, because it can always be misused and get out of hand, but it's useful for keeping people on the straight and narrow.
Octavia Butler
Image
Change is the one unavoidable, irresistible, ongoing reality of the universe. To us, that makes it the most powerful reality, and just another word for God. Earthseed: The Books of the Living Lauren Oya Olamina
Octavia Butler
Image
Science fiction let me do both. It let me look into science and stick my nose in everywhere.
Octavia Butler
Image
Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it.
Octavia Butler
Image
We're all capable of climbing so much higher than we usually permit ourselves to suppose.
Octavia Butler
Image
We give our dead To the orchards And the groves. We give our dead To life.
Octavia Butler
Image
He was like me - a kindred spirit crazy enough to keep on trying.
Octavia Butler
Image
I think climbing mountains or buildings or whatever has been a really good metaphor for finishing my work. Because no matter how tired you get, no matter how you feel like you can't possibly do this, somehow you do.
Octavia Butler
Image
Civilization is the way one's own people live. Savagery is the way foreigners live.
Octavia Butler
Image
People who want to write either do it or they don't. At last I began to say that my most important talent - or habit - was persistence. Without it, I would have given up writing long before I finished my first novel. It's amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up.
Octavia Butler