Quotes from book
Kindred

Kindred
Octavia E. Butler

Kindred is a novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler that incorporates time travel and is modeled on slave narratives. First published in 1979, it is still widely popular. It has been frequently chosen as a text for community-wide reading programs and book organizations, as well as being a common choice for high school and college courses.

Octavia E. Butler photo

“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.””

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

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

Octavia E. Butler photo

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

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

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

Octavia E. Butler photo

“Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of "wrong" ideas.”

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

Source: Kindred

Octavia E. Butler photo

“Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free." I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.”

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

Source: Kindred

Octavia E. Butler photo

“Some of his neighbors found out what I was doing and offered him fatherly advice. It was dangerous to educate slaves, they warned. Education made blacks dissatisfied with slavery. It spoiled them for field work. The Methodist minister said it made them disobedient, made them want more than the Lord intended them to have.”

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

Source: Kindred (1979), Chapter 5, “The Storm” section 13 (pp. 236-37).

Octavia E. Butler photo

““He’s a fair man.”
I looked at him, startled.
“I said fair,” he repeated. “Not likable.”
I kept quiet. His father wasn’t the monster he could have been with the power he held over his slaves. He wasn’t a monster at all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper.”

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

Source: Kindred (1979), Chapter 4, “The Fight” section 6 (p. 134).

Octavia E. Butler photo

“I got up to leave. There was nothing more to be said. He had asked for what he knew I could not give, and I had refused.”

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

Source: Kindred (1979), Chapter 6, “The Rope” section 4 (p. 257).

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