Author

Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.

Not everyone has been a bully or the victim of bullies, but everyone has seen bullying, and seeing it, has responded to it by joining in or objecting, by laughing or keeping silent, by feeling disgusted or feeling interested.

From Octavia E. Butler

The lovely thing about writing is, well, two things. One, writing fiction allows us to bring an order to our lives that doesn't exist in real life. And two, it allows us to create human characters that we know better than we will ever know anyone in real life.

From Octavia E. Butler

Most of us, if we're not careful, tend to dehumanize the enemy.

From Octavia E. Butler

Science fiction is not formulaic.

From Octavia E. Butler

I don't write about good and evil with this enormous dichotomy. I write about people. I write about people doing the kinds of things that people do.

From Octavia E. Butler

Simple peck-order bullying is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world.

From Octavia E. Butler

The big talent is persistence.

From Octavia E. Butler

When I was 7 and went to the zoo with my second-grade class, I saw chimpanzee eyes for the first time - the eyes of an unhappy animal, all alone, locked in a bare, concrete-floored, iron-barred cage in one of the nastier, old-fashioned zoos. I remember looking at the chimp, then looking away.

From Octavia E. Butler

Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it's all in your head?

From Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler

Notable Quotes

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