N.K. Jemisin Quotes

There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.

If the first words out of your mouth are to cry 'political correctness!', ... chances are very, very high that you are in fact part of the problem.

We can never be gods, after all--but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.

I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore. I must try to remember.

Any woman can face the world alone, but why should we have to?

You're very lucky... Friends are precious, powerful things - hard to earn, harder still to keep. You should thank this one for taking a chance on you.

Once upon a time there was a Once upon a time there was a Once upon a time there was a Stop this. It's undignified.

But perhaps that was just the way of power: no such thing as too much.

There is nothing foolish about hope.

Determination could easily become obsession.

We worship Him not because He is the best of our gods, but because He is, or was, the greatest killer among them.

Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid.

The priest's lesson: beware the Nightlord, for his pleasure is a mortal's doom. My grandmother's lesson: beware love, especially with the wrong man.

But when I got angry, my nerves sought an outlet, and my mouth didn't always guard the gates.

Love betrayed has an entirely different sound from hatred outright.

If the gods do decide to wipe us out, is it such a bad thing? Maybe we've earned a little annihilation.

Rising from the dead? Glowing at sunrise? What did that make him, the god of cheerful mornings and macabre surprises?

...and when I lift my head to scream out my fury, a million stars turn black and die. No one can see them, but they are my tears.

They live forever. But many of them are even more lonely and miserable than we are. Why do you think they bother with us? We teach them life's value.

But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always a little love left, underneath. Yes. Horrible, isn't it?

Loneliness is a darkness of the soul

There is no logic to grief.

It is important to appreciate beauty, even when it is evil.

You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I tire of your whining.

The shadows of Ina-Karekh are the place where nightmares dwell, but not their source. Never forget: the shadowlands are not elsewhere. We create them. They are within.

And in that sliver of time, I felt the power around me coalesce, malice-hard and sharp as crystal. That this analogy occurred to me should have been a warning.

Fortunately, where reason failed, blind panic served well enough.

There's truth even in tainted knowledge, if one reads carefully.

Immortality gets very, very boring. You'd be surprised at how interesting the small mundanities of life can seem after a few millennia.

You are Insignificant. One of millions, neither special nor unique. I did not ask for this ignominy, and I resent the comparison. Fine. I don't you like you, either.

No voting on who gets to be people.

Only learning oneself better, and understanding one’s place in the world, made the touch of another mundane.

She has seen him fight his own brutal nature, and the Earth itself, in order to be the parent she needs. He has helped her learn to love herself for what she is.

It was said that the gods favored fools because they were entertaining to watch.

That we're not human is just the lie they tell themselves so they don't have to feel bad about how they treat us

Who misses what they have never, ever even imagined?

In the future, as in the present, as in the past, black people will build many new worlds.This is true. I will make it so. And you will help me.

I think, ' Hoa says slowly, 'that if you love someone, you don't get to choose how they love you back.

Because that is how one survives eternity, ” I say, “or even a few years. Friends. Family. Moving with them. Moving forward.

The body fades. A leader who would last relies on more.

But for a society build on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.

...she wonders why a part of her is trying to find value in degradation.

He has come to seduce the god of seduction, and oh, has he come prepared.

How terrible to be a god of change and endure grief unending.

The way of the world isn't the strong devouring the weak, but the weak deceiving and poisoning and whispering in the ears of the strong until they become weak, too.

How can we prepare for the future if we won’t acknowledge the past?

Inevitable is not the same as immediate, Sieh--and love does not mandate forgiveness.

Once upon a time there was aOnce upon a time there was aOnce upon a time there was aStop this. It's undignified.

You have seen so much purposeless suffering that at least being killed for a reason can be borne?

But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always a little love left, underneath.Yes. Horrible, isn't it?