Quote

The big talent is persistence.

Octavia Butler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Octavia Butler
Persistence
Talent
Bigs

More quotes by Octavia Butler

Image
Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.
Octavia Butler
Image
Drowning people Sometimes die Fighting their rescuers.
Octavia Butler
Image
And I have this little litany of things they can do. And the first one, of course, is to write - every day, no excuses. It's so easy to make excuses. Even professional writers have days when they'd rather clean the toilet than do the writing.
Octavia Butler
Image
Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.
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
I lost an arm on my last trip home.
Octavia Butler
Image
I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure.
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
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
Beware At war Or at peace, More people die Of unenlightened self-interest Than of any other disease
Octavia Butler
Image
I'm literate, and the idea of leaving children illiterate is criminal.
Octavia Butler
Image
I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things.
Octavia Butler
Image
The differences you perceive between Humans-between groups of Humans-are the result of isolation and inbreeding, mutation, and adaptation to different Earth environments
Octavia Butler
Image
Third, for people who aren't doing it already, take classes - they're worthwhile. Workshops or classes - a workshop is where you do actually get feedback on your work, not just something where you go and sit for a day.
Octavia Butler
Image
And by the way, I wanted to point out that Kindred is not science fiction. You'll note there's no science in it. It's a kind of grim fantasy.
Octavia Butler
Image
If there's any single talent a writer needs, it's persistence. If you can keep at your writing and you can learn as you write, you can tell any story you want to tell.
Octavia Butler
Image
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
Image
I began reading science fiction before I was 12 and started writing science fiction around the same time.
Octavia Butler
Image
You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.
Octavia Butler
Image
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.
Octavia Butler