Skip to content

Catherynne M. Valente Quotes

born 1979 United States

Catherynne M. Valente (born Bethany Thomas; May 5, 1979) is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic.

United States
20th-century poets
Authors
Novelists
Science fiction authors

Random Catherynne M. Valente quote

23 quotes

Everyone’s always saying love is the element that binds the universe together, but that’s a load of bollocks; it’s convenience.

Space Opera (2018)

They are time, and time eats everything but listens to no one.

The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild (2015)

A cow goes moo; a sheep goes baa; a celebrity correspondent goes who are you wearing?

Space Opera (2018)

“And how does that make you feel?” he crooned in the comforting tone of a therapist who may or may not actually care.

Space Opera (2018)

Sex is universal, it’s just not evenly distributed.

Space Opera (2018)

Rubbing a seal’s stomach is the opposite of nihilism.

The Future is Blue (2016)

He’d only said what he meant, which was, when you thought about it, a minor superpower, because so few people ever did.

Space Opera (2018)

Though any species on any dumb gobworld may develop sentience (the poor bastards), no government ever does.

Space Opera (2018)

The universe is a very large and very complicated demonstration of having one’s cake and eating it too. It sees no reason not to have it all.

Space Opera (2018)

Everybody fucks.…Being ashamed of it makes about as much sense as being ashamed of the speed of light.

Space Opera (2018)

Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything pulses to a beat laid down by the Big Bang. Everything feels the drumline of creation from star to sex to song.

Space Opera (2018)

People are mostly happiest when they think they’re just about to get the thing they want most.
Before and after, they’re all monsters.

Space Opera (2018)

We have always believed that one of the hallmarks of sentience is the ability to look down upon others. It separates us from the lichen.

Space Opera (2018)

Failure was here before you and she’ll be here after you and she won’t even notice you go.

Space Opera (2018)

What was magical at two in the morning was tawdry and cheap and dangerous to your health at two in the afternoon.

Space Opera (2018)

Shall we play Bezique? Or Nightjack? I’ve cards, or chess if you prefer, but I’ve always found chess to be a bit too much like real life to provide much enjoyment as a game.

Everyone imitates our groove these days. But we were into poisoning our competition and performing an extended dance sequence on their graves before it was cool.

Space Opera (2018)

Life is beautiful and life is stupid. This is, in fact, widely regarded as a universal rule not less inviolable than the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Uncertainty Principle, and No Post on Sundays.

Space Opera (2018)

And then she’d take off again, with a sort of confused-confounded glance down at me, as though every time she came home, it was a shock to remember that I’d ever been born.

The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild (2015)

My percussionist thinks you have a touch of Metastasized Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Blek. My diagnosis? You’re an asshole. Sadly, the only known cure is being set on fire and dropped off a balcony.

Space Opera (2018)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Catherynne M. Valente (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.