413 Quotes by N.K. Jemisin

I remembered Nahadoth's lips on my throat and fought to suppress a shudder, only half succeeding. Death as a consequence of lying with a god wasn't something I had considered, but it did not surprise me. A mortal man's strength had its limits. He spent himself and slept. He could be a good lover, but even his best skills were only guesswork - for every caress that sent a woman's head into the clouds, he might try ten that brought her back to earth.

How terrible to be a god of change and endure grief unending.

In the future, as in the present, as in the past, black people will build many new worlds.This is true. I will make it so. And you will help me.

You are lightning, dangerous unless captured in wires. You're fire - a warm light on a cold dark night to be sure, but also a conflagration that can destroy everything in its path.

You're firemountain-glass... You're a gift of the earth - but Father Earth hates us, never forget, and his gifts are neither free nor safe.

She keeps her pace unhurried, nodding to the seniors she sees whether she recognizes them or not - she does want Feldspar's job, after all - and taking the wide stairways gradually, pausing now and again to appreciate the artfully arranged patterns of light and shadow cast by the narrow windows. She's not sure what makes the patterns so special, actually, but everyone says they're stunning works of art, so she needs to be seen appreciating.

Who is to say plutonium is more powerful than, say, rice? One takes away a million lives, the other saves a hundred times as many.

Wealth has no value when the ash falls.

So here is why I write what I do: We all have futures. We all have pasts. We all have stories. And we all, every single one of us, no matter who we are and no matter what’s been taken from us or what poison we’ve internalized or how hard we’ve had to work to expel it –– we all get to dream.