Lilith might be strong enough now to handle troublemakers herself, but she did not want to do that unless she had to. It would not help the people be… - Octavia E. Butler

A lot of people seem to believe in a big-daddy-God or a big-cop-God or a big-king-God. They believe in a kind of superperson. A few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of.

They can create something beautiful, useful, even something worthless. But they create. They don't destroy.

When I began writing science fiction, when I began reading, heck, I wasn't in any of this stuff I read. The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn't manage anything, any way. I wrote myself in, since I'm me and I'm here and I'm writing.