Quotes from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“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, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts. Positive obsession is dangerous. It’s about not being able to stop at all.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Shyness is shit. It isn’t cute or feminine or appealing. It’s torment, and it’s shit.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“I'm Valerie Rye,' she said, savoring the words. 'It's all right for you to talk to me.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“What are you?" I whispered."What are we to you?"

She lay still, rested her head on her topmost coil. "You know me as no other does," she said softly. "You must decide.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“If you work hard enough at something that doesn't matter, you can forget for a while about the things that do.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Read every day and learn from what you read.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Bloodchild" is my pregnant man story.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“She just couldn't face caring for a child all alone.'
'People do it all the time.'
'She wasn't "people", she was herself. She knew what she could handle and what she couldn't.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“Shyness is shit. It isn’t cute or feminine or appealing. It’s torment, and it’s shit. I”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

“It’s too easy to follow bad but attractive leaders, embrace pleasurable but destructive habits, ignore looming disaster because maybe it won’t happen after all—or maybe it will only happen to other people. That kind of thinking is part of what it means to be adolescent.”
― Octavia E. Butler, quote from Bloodchild and Other Stories

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.