"“The problem with you,” Force said, “is that you’re so used to pain and discomfort that your definition of feeling okay is not the greatest indicator of being okay.”"

"People treat it with more respect than they treat any police officer. Maybe because the robot is polite, helpful and never asks for bribes."

"Fear is a prison, and only by facing it can we truly be free."

"We all have the power to embrace our scars and rise like phoenixes from the ashes of our pain."

"Strength comes not from avoiding suffering, but from enduring it with grace and resilience."

"The fire in my veins burns hotter than any sun."

"The greatest adventure lies not in our surroundings, but in the depths of our own souls."

"so much has changed there because of the work of Octavia Butler, because of the work of Nnedi Okorafor, because of the work of Tananarive Due."

"I speak my life into existence with each expressed breath I take. I tell you a story within which are more stories. Universes within universes. We are all spinning like small suns. I am like my own sun."

"I love books . I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas . I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud."

"There is nothing that a man must believe that can’t be seen or touched or sensed."

"When I am not moving toward my fate, it comes to me."

"We fear what we don’t know."

"Mortality smelled muddy and wet and I reeked of it."

"People hate what they don’t understand."

"“Are you willing to allow other the same right to their beliefs?” “If their beliefs don’t hurt others and, when I feel the need, I am allowed to call them stupid in my mind, then yes.”"

"Just because something is not alive, does not mean that it is dead. You have to be alive first to be dead."

"“Is it better to give or receive?” “They’re the same,” I said. “One can’t exist without the other. But if you keep giving without receiving, you’re a fool.”"

"“Maybe I'm too scared to fly, but I'm brave enough to save your life.”"

"“Is it not the worst pain to know there is a cure for your child's illness and then not be able to obtain it? Oh it must be the one of the worst types of pain in the world.”"

"To know someone's pain is to share in it. And to share in it is to relieve some of it."

"Withholding the truth is lying."

"For too long, the voices and visions for our future have been provided, for the most part, by and from a culturally European (if not Eurocentric) perspective. However, there is change afoot. The works of Octavia E. Butler are becoming mainstream, and names like Nnedi Okorafor and Lesley Nneka Arimah are bringing much needed flavor to the narratives that help shape our future."

"“A curious mind must be properly fed”"

"[W]e call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."

"My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt."

"My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple trees."

"If a thing is right, it can be done, and if it is wrong, it can be done without; and a good man will find a way."

"If you in the morning Throw minutes away, You can't pick them up In the course of a day. You may hurry and scurry, And flurry and worry, You've lost them forever, Forever and aye."

"Do you know why this world is as bad as it is? […] it is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doer to light."

"It is good people who make good places."

"God had given men reason, by which they could find out things for themselves, but He had given animals knowledge which did not depend on reason, and which was much more prompt and perfect in its way, and by which they had often saved the lives of men."

"[T]here is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham."

"[W]e shall all have to be judged according to our works, whether they be towards man or towards beast."

"[A] bad-tempered man will never make a good-tempered horse."

"Oh! if people knew what a comfort to horses a light hand is."

"[D]o your best wherever it is, and keep up your good name."

"The first place that I can well remember, was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, and rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a ploughed field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master's house, which stood by the roadside; at the top of the meadow was a plantation of fir trees, and at the bottom a running brook overhung by a steep bank."

"[T]hey always think they can improve upon nature and mend what God has made."

"To my dear and honoured Mother, whose life, no less than her pen, has been devoted to the welfare of others, this little book is affectionately dedicated."

"[I]f they strain me up tight, why, let 'em look out! I can't bear it, and I won't."

"I am never afraid of what I know."

"(Tove) Jansson was an upper-middle-class bohemian lesbian, living on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland (Klovharu). I was a suburban scouser on a new-build housing estate. It felt as though she was writing just for me."

"In spring I stopped eating the bodies of living things. Nonetheless, the other day I ate several slices of tuna as a form of magic to “undertake” my “communication” with “society.” I also stirred a cup of ' with a spoon. If the fish, while being eaten, had stood behind me and watched, what would he have thought? “I gave up my only life and this person is eating my body as if it were something distasteful.” “He’s eating me in anger.” “He’s eating me out of desperation.” “He’s thinking of me and, while quietly savoring my fat with his tongue, praying, ‘Fish, you will come with me as my companion some day, won’t you?’” “Damn! He’s eating my body!” Well, different fish would have had different thoughts. … Suppose I were the fish, and suppose that not only I were being eaten but my father were being eaten, my mother were being eaten, and my sister were also being eaten. And suppose I were behind the people eating us, watching. “Oh, look, that man has torn apart my sibling with chopsticks. Talking to the person next to him, he swallowed her, thinking nothing of it. Just a few minutes ago her body was lying there, cold. Now she must be disintegrating in a pitch-dark place under the influence of mysterious enzymes. Our entire family have given up our precious lives that we value, we’ve sacrificed them, but we haven’t won a thimbleful of pity from these people.” I must have been once a fish that was eaten."

"Buddhism's starting point is that all living things, we who are so full of pain and sadness, together with all these living things, want to liberate ourselves from this state of pain. … All living things have been repeating transmigration for immeasurable kalpa. … Sometimes a soul perceives itself as a human. At other times it is born in a beast, that is, what we call an animal. … As a result, the living things around us are all our parents and children, brothers and sisters, as they have been for a long time. People of different religions will think this idea too serious and terrifying. [Indeed] this is a serious world to a terrifying degree."

"I’ve had several teachers who inspired me. Most notable was, perhaps, an English teacher I had during my junior year of high school. All my life I’d been praised and encouraged as an artist. This particular teacher did this, but she also encouraged me as a writer, going so far as to say once, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw your name on a book one day.” The power of these words was enormous. I’ll never forget them. Or her."