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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

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Octavia Butler
Think
Building
Buildings
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Whatever
Climbing
Like
Matter
Mountains
Feel
Metaphor
Feels
Possibly
Work
Somehow
Really
Mountain
Good
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Finishing

More quotes by Octavia Butler

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Science fiction let me do both. It let me look into science and stick my nose in everywhere.
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Not everyone has been a bully or the victim of bullies, but everyone has seen bullying, and seeing it, has responded to it by joining in or objecting, by laughing or keeping silent, by feeling disgusted or feeling interested.
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A workshop is a way of renting an audience, and making sure you're communicating what you think you're communicating. It's so easy as a young writer to think you're been very clear when in fact you haven't.
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The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn't manage anything, anyway. I wrote myself in, since I'm me and I'm here and I'm writing.
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On the other hand, I was very much interested in the way people behaved, the human dance, how they seemed to move around each other. I wanted to play around with that.
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He was like me - a kindred spirit crazy enough to keep on trying.
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If you want a thing--truly want it, want it so badly that you need it as you need air to breathe, then unless you die, you will have it. Why not? It has you. There is no escape. What a cruel and terrible thing escape would be if escape were possible
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I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things.
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I began reading science fiction before I was 12 and started writing science fiction around the same time.
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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.
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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.
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To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
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I lost an arm on my last trip home.
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But my problem with fantasy, and horror, and related genres, is that sometimes the problems are illogical.
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All religions are ultimately cargo cults. Adherents perform required rituals, follow specific rules, and expect to be supernaturally gifted with desired rewards long life, honor, wisdom, children, good health, wealth, victory over opponents, immortality after death, any desired rewards.
Octavia Butler
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When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.
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Belief initiates and guides action - or it does nothing.
Octavia Butler
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I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.
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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
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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