Octavia E. Butler: Trending quotes

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Octavia E. Butler: 214 quotes29 likes

“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”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents

“Kindness eases change.
Love quiets fear.
And a sweet and powerful
Positive obsession
Blunts pain,
Diverts rage,
And engages each of us
In the greatest,
The most intense
Of our chosen struggles.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents

“In my years, I have seen that people must be their own gods and make their own good fortune. The bad will come or not come anyway.”

Octavia E. Butler Wild Seed

Source: Wild Seed

“Fantasy is totally wide open; all you really have to do is follow the rules you've set. But if you're writing about science, you have to first learn what you're writing about.”

Octavia E. Butler

“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 E. Butler

“The Destiny of Earthseed
Is to take root among the stars.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 7 (p. 84)

“Civilization is the way one's own people live. Savagery is the way foreigners live.”

Octavia E. Butler Wild Seed

Source: Wild Seed

“Jarrett would be easier to take if he cared half as much about children’s bodies and minds as he pretends to care about their souls.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 20 (p. 391)

“Dad decided not to vote for Donner after all. He didn’t vote for anyone. He said politicians turned his stomach.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 3 (p. 27)

“Intelligence is ongoing, individual adaptability. Adaptations that an intelligent species may make in a single generation, other species make over many generations of selective breeding and selective dying. Yet intelligence is demanding. If it is misdirected by accident or by intent, it can foster its own orgies of breeding and dying.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 4 (p. 29)

“We give our dead
To the orchards
And the groves.
We give our dead
To life.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 1 (p. 5)

“He was surprised when I ignored him. He is wealthy and arrogant and used to being listened to even when what he says is nonsense—as it often is.”

Octavia E. Butler Wild Seed

Source: Wild Seed (1980), Chapter 2 (p. 25)

“Helpless lust and unreasoning anxiety were just part of growing up.”

Octavia E. Butler book Imago

Source: Imago (1989), Chapter II, “Exile” section 9 (p. 649)

“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 E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 10 (p. 101)

“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 E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 4 (p. 31)

“Yes,” he said, “intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike. But your denial doesn’t matter. A cancer growing in someone’s body will go on growing in spite of denial. And a complex combination of genes that work together to make you intelligent as well as hierarchical will still handicap you whether you acknowledge it or not.”

Octavia E. Butler book Dawn

Part I “Womb” chapter 5 (p. 39)
Dawn (1987)

“If you hear nonsense like that often enough for long enough, you begin to believe it.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 15 (p. 291)

““I’m not a demagogue.”
“That’s too bad. That leaves the field to people who are demagogues—to the Jarrets of the world. And there have always been Jarrets. Probably there always will be.””

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 20 (p. 395).