896 Quotes by Catherynne M. Valente

I wish you the best that can be hoped for, and no worse than can be expected.

It is best in the end to let women see to their own vengeance.

How much better if life were more like books, if life lied a little more, and gave up its stubborn and boring adherence to the way things can be, and thought a little more imaginatively about the way things might be.

Then he is a monster!" the Prince crowed, "and I must slay him at once. The Formula works!" "Your Formula must result in a great deal of fighting," I mused. "Oh, yes, when applied correctly mighty and noble battles result! Of course I always win—the value of Prince X is a constant. It cannot be lesser than that of Monster Y—this is the Moral Superiority Hypothesis made famous five hundred years ago by my ancestor Ethelred, the Mathematician-King. We have never seen his equal, in all these centuries.

The future is a messy, motley business, little girl.

He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself like watercolors.

Fierce was her needle, and she wore it like a sword.

I perceive that you have a cruel heart, my child. It lies within your breast like a smoldering blade, hissing steam at me.

She was beautiful and terrifying, savage and pure.