413 Quotes by N.K. Jemisin

It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all – but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.

The way I see it, a stranger feels like a stranger; a friend feels like a friend. Simple.

Survival doesn’t mean rightness. I could kill you right now, but that wouldn’t make me a better person for doing so.

I think,” Hoa says slowly, “that if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.

Sometimes that’s all it takes to save a world, you see. A new vision. A new way of thinking, appearing at just the right time.

The shadows of Ina-Karekh are the place where nightmares dwell, but not their source. Never forget: the shadowlands are not elsewhere. We create them. They are within.

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.

There is peace in submission, but sometimes greater peace – lasting peace – in resistance.

What the Leaving proved was that the Earth could sustain billions, if we simply shared resources and responsibilities in a sensible way. What it couldn’t sustain was a handful of hateful, self-important parasites, preying upon and paralyzing everyone else. As soon as those people left, the paralysis ended.