Bloodchild and Other Stories Quotes

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.”
― Octavia Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts. Positive obsession is dangerous. It’s about not being able to stop at all.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Shyness is shit. It isn’t cute or feminine or appealing. It’s torment, and it’s shit.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Read every day and learn from what you read.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“If you work hard enough at something that doesn't matter, you can forget for a while about the things that do.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Writing is difficult. You do it all alone without encouragement and without any certainty that you'll ever be published or paid or even that you'll be able to finish the particular work you've begun. It isn't easy to persist amid all that....

Sometimes when I'm interviewed, the interviewer either compliments me on my 'talent,' my 'gift,' or asks me how I discovered it.... I used to struggle to answer this politely, to explain that I didn't believe much in writing talent. People who want to write either do it or they don't. At last I began to say that my most important talent--or habit--was persistence. Without it, I would have given up writing long before I finished my first novel. It's amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up.

I suspect this is the most important thing I've said in all my interviews and talks as well as in this book. It's a truth that applies to more than writing. It applies to anything that is important, but difficult, important, but frightening. We're all capable of climbing so much higher than we usually permit ourselves to suppose.

The word, again, is 'persist'!”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“When I began to do a little public speaking, one of the questions I heard most often was, "What good is science fiction to Black people?" I was usually asked this by a Black person...

What good is any form of literature to Black people?

What good is science fiction's thinking about the present, the future, and the past? What good is its tendency to warn or to consider alternative ways of thinking and doing? What good is its examination of the possible effects of science and technology, or social organization and political direction? At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow footpath of what "everyone" is saying, doing, thinking -- whoever "everyone" happens to be this year.

And what good is all this to Black people?”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Was an eternity of absolute ease just another name for hell?”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“What are you?" I whispered."What are we to you?"

She lay still, rested her head on her topmost coil. "You know me as no other does," she said softly. "You must decide.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow footpath of what "everyone" is saying, doing thinking - whoever "everyone" happens to be this year.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and other Stories

“When I was older, I decided that getting a rejection slip was like being told your child was ugly. You got mad and didn’t believe a word of it. Besides, look at all the really ugly literary children out there in the world being published and doing fine!”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I'm Valerie Rye,' she said, savoring the words. 'It's all right for you to talk to me.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I began to say that my most important talent—or habit—was persistence. Without it, I would have given up writing long before I finished my first novel. It’s amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up. I suspect that this is the most important thing I’ve said in all my interviews and talks as well as in this book. It’s a truth that applies to more than writing. It applies to anything that is important, but difficult, important, but frightening. We’re all capable of climbing so much higher than we usually permit ourselves to suppose. The word, again, is “persist”!”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“There seems to be an unwritten rule, hurtful and at odds with the realities of American culture. It says you aren't supposed to wonder whether as a Black person, a Black woman, you really might be inferior––not quite bright enough, not quite quick enough to do the things you want to do. Though, of course, you do wonder. You're supposed to know you're as good as anyone. And if you don't know, you aren't supposed to admit it. If anyone near you admits it, you're supposed to reassure them quickly so they'll shut up. That sort of talk is embarrassing. Act tough and confident and don't talk about your doubts. If you never deal with them, you may never get rid of them, but no matter. Fake everyone out. Even yourself.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“It's amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“It’s too easy to follow bad but attractive leaders, embrace pleasurable but destructive habits, ignore looming disaster because maybe it won’t happen after all—or maybe it will only happen to other people. That kind of thinking is part of what it means to be adolescent.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“What good is science fiction’s thinking about the present, the future, and the past? What good is its tendency to warn or to consider alternative ways of thinking and doing? What good is its examination of the possible effects of science and technology, or social organization and political direction? At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow footpath of what “everyone” is saying, doing, thinking—whoever “everyone” happens to be this year.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I don't like most Utopia stories because I don't believe them for a moment. It seems inevitable that my Utopia would be someone else's hell.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“But still I’m asked, what good is science fiction to Black people? What good is any form of literature to Black people? What good is science fiction’s thinking about the present, the future, and the past? What good is its tendency to warn or to consider alternative ways of thinking and doing? What good is its examination of the possible effects of science and technology, or social organization and political direction? At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow footpath of what “everyone” is saying, doing, thinking—whoever “everyone” happens to be this year. And what good is all this to Black people?”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I couldn't fake myself out. I didn't talk much about my doubts. I wasn't fishing for hasty reassurances. But I did a lot of thinking —the same things over and over.

Who was I anyway? Why should anyone pay attention to what I had to say? Did I have anything to say?”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“When I was older, I decided that getting a rejection slip was like being told your child was ugly. You got mad and didn't believe a word of it. Besides, look at all the really ugly literary children out there in the world being published and doing fine!”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Shyness is shit.
It isn't cute or feminine or appealing. It's torment, and it's shit. I spent a lot of my childhood and adolescence starting at the ground. It's a wonder I didn't become a geologist.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I wanted to disappear. Instead, I grew to be six feet tall. Boys in particular seemed to assume that I had done this growing deliberately and that I should be ridiculed for it as often as possible.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice. Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“She wasn't writing romance or feel-good novels,” mystery author Walter Mosley said. “She was writing very difficult, brilliant work.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Let nothing substandard slip through. If you notice something that needs fixing, fix it, no excuses. There will be plenty that’s wrong that you won’t catch. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring flaws that are obvious to you. The moment you find yourself saying, “This doesn’t matter. It’s good enough.” Stop. Go back. Fix the flaw. Make a habit of doing your best.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I saw positive obsession as a way of aiming yourself, your life, at your chose target. Decide what you want. Aim high. Go for it.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I spent a lot of my childhood and adolescence staring at the ground. It’s a wonder I didn’t become a geologist.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I can't say why I went to college–except that I had been going to school all my life and didn't know what else to do. I didn't go with any particular hope. Hell, I knew what I was in for eventually. I was just marking time. Whatever I did was just marking time. If people were willing to pay me to go to school and mark time, why not do it?
The weird part was, I worked hard, got top grades. If you work hard enough at something that doesn't matter, you can forget a while about the things that do.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories