896 Quotes by Catherynne M. Valente

I could not say what creeps and whispers through the branches and down the threaded Road, but I hear it, and I am not afraid.

They knew all about the war with France from Papa’s magazines. But whenever they tried to imagine what a war was actually like, it unfolded in their heads like a cross between a chess game, a horse race, a country dance, and a very racy night at the theater.

Husbands lie, Masha. I should know; I’ve eaten my share. That’s lesson one. Lesson number two: among the topics about which a husband is most likely to lie are money, drink, black eyes, political affiliation, and women who squatted on his lap before and after your sweet self.

We’ve made too many movies, you and I. Or too few. Always too few. Too many to have any meaning, too few to say what we meant.

Nothing real is pretty, she said. Only a doll is pretty. And a pretty doll drinks out of a tiny cup forever. A woman wants a big cup.

Everything in creation is just a trick of the light – the only difference between heaven and hell is who’s running those lights, who’s got the switch, who knows the cues.

She drank like a Czar and sang like a broken squeezebox and danced like the Sugarplum Fairy cutting loose at last.

But love is love, and love is compulsion. I must, and I do.

That’s the only way to look at things, I always say,” propounded the Duke. “Slantways, sideways, and upside down.