N. K. Jemisin Quotes

…You’re still putting a pretty hefty mental commitment into making a short story. Even though it’s relatively brief, you still have to come up with a world that’s coherent. I find short stories almost as difficult to write as novels, it’s just less time-consuming. Short stories are hard for me. That’s why the collection is something like fifteen years worth of short stories. They asked me to write several new ones for the collection and I was just like, Not likely to happen. In fact, I can really only write them when I’m between novels because they take away from whatever energy I’m trying to pour into a novel.

I'm tired of being what everyone else has made me, I said. I want to be myself.
Don't be a child.
I looked up, startled and angry, though of course there was nothing to see. What?
You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I'm tired of your whining.

It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy, it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all—but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.

Mother always said that if one must do something unpleasant, one should do it wholeheartedly and not waste effort on regret.

But love like that doesn’t just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there’s always a little love left, underneath.
Yes. Horrible, isn’t it?

The child in her wanted to do as she pleased, cling to impossible hopes. The woman in her wanted to make sound decisions, succeed even if it meant sacrifice. The woman would win; that was inevitable. But the child would not go quietly.

It’s all right to need help. All of us have things we can’t do alone.

Weapons have no need of friends.

It is a massive palace, each spire of which could house a village; its chambers contain dozens of entertainments. All of these become tedious to the point of torment after two thousand years. Hells, after twenty.

When we say that “the world has ended,” remember—it is usually a lie. The planet is just fine.

They follow the creed of the Bright: that which disturbs the order of society must be eliminated, regardless of whether it caused the disturbance. She rolled her eyes. You'd think they'd get tired of parroting Itempas and start thinking for themselves after two thousand years.

Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid.

All energy is the same, through its different states and names. Movement creates heat which is also light that waves like sound which tightens or loosens the atomic bonds of crystal as they hum with strong and weak forces. In mirroring resonance with all of this is magic, the radiant emission of life and death.

There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.

There was no point in making myself suffer unnecessarily. As a mortal, there would be pain enough in my life, whether I sought it out or not.