Octavia E. Butler Quotes

Don't you know everything?"
God smiled. "No, I outgrew that trick long ago. You can't imagine how boring it was.

There’s no narcotic like exhaustion.

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

I wonder what a badge is, other than a license to steal.

Life was treasure. The only treasure.

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.

:To be led by a tyrant

“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.

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

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.

:To be led by a fool

:To be led by a coward

"When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing." (p.275)

I fell into writing it because I saw a bad movie, a movie called Devil Girl from Mars, and went into competition with it. But I think I stayed with it because it was so wide open. It gave me the chance to comment on every aspect of humanity. People tend to think of science fiction as, oh, Star Wars or Star Trek. And the truth is, there are no closed doors, and there are no required formulas. You can go anywhere with it.

:We see what we’re told that we see.