“I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. I was ...” — Octavia E. Butler Quote

“I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. I was able to do anything and there were no walls to hem you in and there was no human condition that you were stopped from examining.”

“I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things.”

“Third, for people who aren't doing it already, take classes - they're worthwhile. Workshops or classes - a workshop is where you do actually get feedback on your work, not just something where you go and sit for a day.”

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

“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

“Science fiction, extrasensory perception, and black people are judged by the worst elements they produce.”

“More life on the bottom of the ocean than anywhere else. In the vents. The layers. The currents. Things down there betray all the categories.”

“What goes up must come down.”

“Where the frontier of science once was is now the centre.”

“I, on the other hand, am a finished product. I absorb electrical energy directly and utilize it with an almost one hundred percent efficiency. I am composed of strong metal, am continuously conscious, and can stand extremes of environment easily. These are facts which, with the self-evident proposition that no being can create another being superior to itself, smashes your silly hypothesis to nothing.”

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

“We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. People are terrified — how can you live and not know? It is not odd at all. You only think you know, as a matter of fact. And most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge and you really don't know what it is all about, or what the purpose of the world is, or know a great deal of other things. It is possible to live and not know.”