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Octavia E. Butler

Octavia Estelle Butler was an African-American science fiction author. A multiple recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, she became in 1995 the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Butler was born in Pasadena, California. After her father died, she was raised by her widowed mother.

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Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

– Octavia E. Butler

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A long leash is still a leash.

– Octavia E. Butler

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A workshop is a way of renting an audience, and making sure you’re communicating what you think you’re communicating. It’s so easy as a young writer to think you’re been very clear when in fact you haven’t.

– Octavia E. Butler

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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 E. Butler

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

– Octavia E. Butler

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I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.

– Octavia E. Butler

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I’ve talked to high school kids who are thinking about trying to become a writer and asking ‘What should I major in?’, and I tell them, ‘History. Anthropology. Something where you get to know the human species a little better, as opposed to something where you learn to arrange words.’ I don’t know whether that’s good advice or not, but it feels right to me.

– Octavia E. Butler

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Once you grow past Mommy and Daddy coming running when you're hurt, you're really on your own. You're alone, and there's no one to help you.

– Octavia E. Butler

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People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's other people doing the calling that bothers me.

– Octavia E. Butler

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Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of ‘wrong’ ideas

– Octavia E. Butler

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When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.

– Octavia E. Butler

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Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it.

– Octavia E. Butler

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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.

– Octavia E. Butler

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