Catherynne M. Valente Quotes

I have always been delighted when told there was a piece of fanfic inspired by a book of mine floating about. I don't read it for legal reasons, but I'm thrilled to know it's there. Someone cared. Someone loved it enough to spend their free time writing about it for free.

- Catherynne M. Valente

You can't have whatever you want. But to a child who must ask permission for every single thing, adulthood looks like a constant parade of every desire's satisfaction. It is a heady and terrifying place. It is the Otherworld. It is Fairyland. In fantasy, we make this literal.

- Catherynne M. Valente

Just about every science whiz can tell you how he or she took apart the TV or the radio when they were kids just to see how it worked. To see what the world was made of. Well, when I was a kid, I took apart fairy tales to see how they worked. To see what the world was made of.

- Catherynne M. Valente

Fantasy is my heart and love. And I just want to play in that garden for the rest of my life.

- Catherynne M. Valente

No matter what you write, you actually can't help retelling a fairy tale somewhere along the way.

- Catherynne M. Valente

Every morning is a battle between the superego and the id, and I am a mere foot soldier with mud and a snooze button on her shield.

- Catherynne M. Valente

Everyone has a right to cry uncle on a genre every once in awhile. I've done it myself. Sometimes you just can't bear another gear or pair of wings or vampire teeth. You go on a fast, and sometimes you come back, and sometimes you don't.

- Catherynne M. Valente

Every writing teacher I ever had except for one told me I was an awful writer, had no idea what I was doing, and should stop immediately. It only took the one to tell me something different to light a fire under me.

- Catherynne M. Valente

It seems like every few years a big name author will holler something about how evil, heinous, and morally wrong fan fiction and fan fiction writers are, and then the Internet gets all upset and shocked, and then the author is shocked that people could get so upset.

- Catherynne M. Valente

For most of us, fanfiction is a non-issue. Even for midlist writers. We will never be popular enough for people to play in our worlds with any frequency. The problem for us is getting people to read and care about our books that much in the first place.

- Catherynne M. Valente

Monsters almost always are culture's way of working out their fears and are thus inherently incredibly interesting and powerful.

- Catherynne M. Valente

Vampires should be pretty much like mean girls, all the time, only amazing at it. Flawless. They've had time.

- Catherynne M. Valente

I'm very touchy feely with my fandom, in part because they've never done me wrong or hurt me in any way. This is an awesome balance. I hope it stays that way forever.

- Catherynne M. Valente

I try to hurt myself, to sprain something, writing every novel and story, because I'm stretching for something new and difficult that I haven't done before.

- Catherynne M. Valente