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Octavia E. Butler citations

Octavia Estelle Butler, née le 22 juin 1947 à Pasadena en Californie et morte le 24 février 2006 à Lake Forest Park dans l'État de Washington, est une écrivaine de science-fiction afro-américaine des États-Unis publiée en France par la maison d'édition Au diable vauvert. Wikipedia  

✵ 22. juin 1947 – 24. février 2006  •  Autres noms Օկտավիա Բատլեր, اکتاویا باتلر
Octavia E. Butler photo

Œuvres

La Parabole des talents
Octavia E. Butler
La Parabole des talents
Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler: 108 citations0 J'aime

Octavia E. Butler Citations

“Attention :
A la guerre
Comme en temps de paix,
L'égoïsme aveugle
Fait plus de victimes
Que tous les autres fléaux

Semence de la Terre : le Livre des Vivants”

Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Parable of the Talents

Octavia E. Butler: Citations en anglais

“A pet. In pets, free will was tolerated only as long as the pet owner found it amusing.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Mind of My Mind

Source: Mind of My Mind (1977), Chapter 5 (p. 344)

“We keep falling into the same ditches, you know? I mean, we learn more and more about the physical universe, more about our own bodies, more technology, but somehow, down through history, we go on building empires of one kind or another, then destroying them in one way or another. We go on having stupid wars that we justify and get passionate about, but in the end, all they do is kill huge numbers of people, maim others, impoverish still more, spread disease and hunger, and set the stage for the next war. And when we look at all of that in history, we just shrug our shoulders and say, well, that’s the way things are. That’s the way things always have been.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 20 (p. 392)

“Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.
To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to.
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 11 (p. 201)

“In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Variante: In order to rise
From its own ashes
A phoenix
First
Must
Burn.
Source: Parable of the Talents

““I didn’t want to scare you. We don’t want to scare anyone.”
“No? Well, sometimes it’s a good thing to scare people. Sometimes fear is all that will keep them from doing stupid things.””

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Octavia E. Butler livre Adulthood Rites

Part II “Phoenix” chapter 15 (p. 381).
Adulthood Rites (1988)

“He didn’t look all right to me. “Has anyone gone for the doctor?”
“Marse Tom don’t hardly get Doc West for ague. He says all the doc knows is bleeding and blistering and purging and puking and making folks sicker than they was to start.””

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Octavia E. Butler livre Kindred

Source: Kindred (1979), Chapter 5, “The Storm” section 3 (p. 202).

“When it comes to strangers with guns,” I told her, “I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 11 (p. 122)

“I can’t do it, Joachim. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. A long leash is still a leash. And Coransee will still be at the other end of it, holding on.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Patternmaster

Source: Patternmaster (1976), Chapter 4 (p. 689)

““What were they saying?” Daly asked.
“They disapprove of your profession,” Doro told him.
“Heathen savages,” Daly muttered. “They’re like animals. They’re all cannibals.”
“These aren’t,” Doro said, “though some of the their neighbors are.”
“All of them,” Daly insisted. “Just give them the chance.”
Doro smiled. “Well, no doubt the missionaries will reach them eventually and teach them to practice only symbolic cannibalism.”
Daly jumped. He considered himself a pious man in spite of his work. “You shouldn’t say such things,” he whispered. “Not even you are beyond the reach of God.”
“Spare me your mythology,” Doro said, “and your righteous indignation.” Daly had been Doro’s man too long to be pampered in such matters. “At least we cannibals are honest about what we do,” Doro continued. “We don’t pretend as your slavers do to be acting for the benefit of our victims’ souls. We don’t tell ourselves we’ve caught them to teach them civilized religion.””

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Octavia E. Butler Wild Seed

Source: Wild Seed (1980), Chapter 3 (p. 42)

““Human beings fear difference,” Lilith had told him once. “Oankali crave difference. Humans persecute their different ones, yet they need them to give themselves definition and status. Oankali seek difference and collect it. They need it to keep themselves from stagnation and overspecialization. If you don’t understand this, you will. You’ll probably find both tendencies surfacing in your own behavior.” And she had put her hand on his hair. “When you feel a conflict, try to go the Oankali way. Embrace difference.””

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Octavia E. Butler livre Adulthood Rites

Part II “Phoenix” chapter 4 (p. 329).
Adulthood Rites (1988)

“I might not have believed this if a Human had said it. Humans said one thing with their bodies and another with their mouths and everybody had to spend time and energy figuring out what they really meant.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Imago

Source: Imago (1989), Chapter I, “Metamorphosis” section 4 (p. 548)

“Margaret Weylin complained because she couldn’t find anything to complain about.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Kindred

Source: Kindred (1979), Chapter 3, “The Fall” section 5 (p. 81).

“We’ve also been laughed at, argued with, booed, and threatened with hellfire—or gunfire. But Jarret’s kind of religion and Jarret himself are getting less and less popular these days. Both, it seems, are bad for business, bad for the U. S. Constitution, and bad for a large percentage of the population. They always have been, but now more and more people are willing to say so in public. The Crusaders have terrorized some people into silence, but they’ve just made others very angry.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 21 (p. 430)

“No one thought about what kind of society we were building with such stupid decisions. People who could afford to educate their children in private schools were glad to see the government finally stop wasting their tax money, educating other people’s children. They seemed to think they lived on Mars. They imagined that a country filled with poor, uneducated, unemployable people somehow wouldn’t hurt them!”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 20 (p. 404)

““I’ll tell you,” she said softly. “But you won’t like it.”
He looked away from her. “I asked for the truth. Whether I like it or not, I have to know.””

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Octavia E. Butler livre Patternmaster

Source: Patternmaster (1976), Chapter 6 (p. 717)

“Beware:
Ignorance
Protects itself
Ignorance
Promotes suspicion.
Suspicion
Engenders fear.
Fear quails,
Irrational and blind,
Or fear looms,
Defiant and closed.
Blind, closed,
Suspicious, afraid,
Ignorance
Protects itself,
And protected,
Ignorance grows.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 12 (p. 225)

“So he had locked her in the closet. Some of his people, ignorant and fearful, could not quite believe her illness was not contagious. Badger locked her away from them for her own safety. She had seen for herself how eager they were to get her out of their sight.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Clay's Ark

Source: Clay's Ark (1984), Chapter 28 (p. 609)

“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.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 8 (p. 94)

“A tree cannot grow in its parents’ shadows.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 7 (p. 82)

“Sometimes, one must become a master to avoid becoming a slave.”

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Octavia E. Butler Wild Seed

Source: Wild Seed (1980), Chapter 1 (p. 11)

“Life was treasure. The only treasure.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Imago

Source: Imago (1989), Chapter I, “Metamorphosis” section 6 (p. 564)

“We are born not with purpose, but with potential.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

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

“I didn’t want to scare you. We don’t want to scare anyone.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Adulthood Rites

“No? Well, sometimes it’s a good thing to scare people. Sometimes fear is all that will keep them from doing stupid things.”
Part II “Phoenix” chapter 15 (p. 381)
Adulthood Rites (1988)

“All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
Is Change.

God
Is Change.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 1 (p. 3)

“When vision fails
Direction is lost.

When direction is lost
Purpose may be forgotten.

When purpose if forgotten
Emotion rules alone.

When emotion rules alone,
Destruction…destruction.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre La Parabole des talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 13 (p. 239)

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.”

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Octavia E. Butler livre Bloodchild and Other Stories

Source: Bloodchild and Other Stories

“People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's other people doing the calling that bothers me.”

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Octavia E. Butler

“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.”

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Octavia E. Butler

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