American science fiction writer (1947-2006)
I'm glad I was raised as a Baptist, because I got my conscience installed early.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Locus Magazine, June 2000
Helpless lust and unreasoning anxiety were just part of growing up.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Imago
All struggles
Are essentially power struggles,
And most are no more intellectual than two rams
knocking their heads together.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Parable of the Talents
I think writers use absolutely everything that happens to us, and surely if I had had a different sort of childhood and still come out a writer, I'd be a different kind of writer. It's on a par with, but different from, the fact that I had four brothers who were born and died before I was born. Some of them didn't come to term, some of them did come to term and then died. But my mother couldn't carry a child to term, for the most part something went wrong. If they had lived, I would be a very different person. So, anything that happens in your life that is important, if it didn't happen you would be someone different.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Motion Magazine, March 14, 2004
When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Fledgling
Humans said one thing with their bodies and another with their mouths and everyone had to spend time and energy figuring out what they really meant. And once you did understand them, the Humans got angry and acted as though you had stolen thoughts from their minds.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Imago