Fantasy Authors

"Sky’s forecourt had been designed by my late sister, Kurue, who had understood two key elements of the mortal psyche: they hate being reminded of their own insignificance, yet they simultaneously and instinctively expect their leaders to be overwhelmingly dominant."

"There was no point in making myself suffer unnecessarily. As a mortal, there would be pain enough in my life, whether I sought it out or not."

"Unconditional love: childhood’s greatest magic."

"“When things are bad, change is good, right? Change means things will get better.”"

"“Well, isn’t that what fathers do?” He had no idea what fathers did. “Love you, even if you don’t love them? Miss you when you go away?”"

"I had never been able to truly hate anyone who’d suffered, no matter what evils they’d done in the aftermath."

"Otherwise it was quiet—that eerie, not-quite-comforting quiet one finds in small towns before dawn."

"I knew what it was at last—the visible manifestation of my will. My power, inherited from my god ancestors and distilled through generations of humanity, given shape and energy and potential. That was all magic was, really, in the end. Possibility. With it I could create anything, provided I believed."

"“I keep hoping you’ll tell me. You’re the god, after all. If I prayed to you for guidance, and you decided to answer, what would you tell me?” “I wouldn’t answer.” “Because you don’t care? Or because you wouldn’t know what to say?” More silence."

"They live forever, but many of them are even more lonely and miserable than we are. Why do you think they bother with us? We teach them life’s value."

"I...regret...what I did. It was wrong. Very wrong. But regret is meaningless."

"Good intentions are pointless without the will to implement them."

"So, there was a girl. What I’ve guessed, and what the history books imply, is that she was unlucky enough to have been sired by a cruel man. He beat both wife and daughter and abused them in other ways. Bright Itempas is called, among other things, the god of justice. Perhaps that was why He responded when she came into His temple, her heart full of unchildlike rage. “I want him to die,” she said (or so I imagine). “Please Great Lord, make him die.” You know the truth now about Itempas. He is a god of warmth and light, which we think of as pleasant, gentle things. I once thought of Him that way, too. But warmth uncooled burns; light undimmed can hurt even my blind eyes. I should have realized. We should all have realized. He was never what we wanted Him to be. So when the girl begged the Bright Lord to murder her father, He said, “Kill him yourself.” And He gifted her with a knife perfectly suited to her small, weak child’s hands. She took the knife home and used it that very night. The next day, she came back to the Bright Lord, her hands and soul stained red, happy for the first time in her short life. “I will love you forever,” she declared. And He, for a rare once, found Himself impressed by mortal will. Or so I imagine. The child was mad, of course. Later events proved this. But it makes sense to me that this madness, not mere religious devotion, would appeal most to the Bright Lord. Her love was unconditional, her purpose undiluted by such paltry considerations as conscience or doubt. It seems like Him, I think, to value that kind of purity of purpose—even though, like warmth and light, too much love is never a good thing."

"“You can’t lose faith you never had to begin with.” “Ah. So you never believed in the Bright at all?” “Of course I believed. Even now I believe, in principle. But when I was sixteen, I saw the hypocrisy in all the things the priests had taught me. It’s all very well to say the world values reason and compassion and justice, but if nothing in reality reflects those words, they’re meaningless.”"

"I understand that mutual dissatisfaction is a factor in their collaboration. I imagine it isn’t a far step from mutual goals to mutual respect, and from there to love."

"But though I repeated my plea, and waited on my knees for nearly an hour, there was no answer."

"What happened when people who’d once possessed absolute power suddenly lost it?"

"I knew as well as anyone that the priests taught what they wanted us to know, not necessarily what was true. And sometimes even when they told the truth, they got it wrong."

"“They follow the creed of the Bright: that which disturbs the order of society must be eliminated, regardless of whether it caused the disturbance.” She rolled her eyes. “You’d think they’d get tired of parroting Itempas and start thinking for themselves after two thousand years.”"

"There’s not such thing as magic that does no harm."

"Very quickly I fell in with others like me—newcomers, dreamers, young people drawn to the city in spite of its dangers because sometimes, for some of us, tedium and familiarity feel worse than risking your life."

"I was beginning to understand, a little. “Is that why you’re a usurer?” Madding chuckled. “I prefer the term investor. And my rates are perfectly fair, thank you.” “Drug dealer, then.” “I prefer the term independent apothecary—”"

"When people questioned this, the priests simply said, The world has changed. We must change with it. You can imagine how well that went over."

"Love betrayed has an entirely different sound from hatred outright."

"It’s all right to need help. All of us have things we can’t do alone."

"“I will not beg your forgiveness,” she said. Only her voice betrayed her fear; it was not its usual strong, clear tone. “I did what I felt was right.” “Of course you did,” I said. “It was the wise thing to do.”"

"“I'm tired of being what everyone else has made me,” I said. “I want to be myself.” “Don’t be a child.” I looked up, startled and angry, though of course there was nothing to see. “What?” “You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I’m tired of your whining.”"

"We were all exposed to nothing but white dude fiction, occasionally young white women fiction, and if that’s how you’ve grown up, then that is what is normal."

"(Book that...everyone should read:) One of the many books by queer and POC authors that are under challenge by conservatives, via your local library. If they’re no longer available at your library because the conservatives got there first, join your local Library Board and fight to reinstate them. Reading–and the freedom to speak truth to power–is part of a framework of equity and justice that is under attack in a way not seen for a generation. Fight for all books. Or else."

"There is no logic to grief."

"But love like that doesn’t just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there’s always a little love left, underneath. Yes. Horrible, isn’t it?"

"Immortality gets very, very boring. You'd be surprised at how interesting the small mundanities of life can seem after a few millennia."

"It is important to appreciate beauty, even when it is evil."

"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."

"But perhaps that was just the way of power: no such thing as too much."

"There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child."

"My job is to help the world..That is what an artist's job is—to the degree that we can. That is nothing more than holding up a mirror and saying, 'You're beautiful, baby.' Or holding up a mirror and saying, 'Look at the shit that you're doing to yourself. Maybe you should stop.' It is an artist's job to speak truth to power."

"The pasts that I draw upon tend to be mythic pasts. I’m not super interested in writing historical fantasy. I have done that a few times in the case of subject areas that I felt like should have been explored more, like the Haitian Revolution, for example. But for the most part, I’m more interested in exploring the gods that we could have had. Or these are the creation myths that we could have explored. I’m not super interested in existing mythology, though existing mythology does inform just about everything that I’m coming up with. But that’s more along the lines of, This is how mythology should be structured, so you need to look at existing mythology to understand that. If I’m trying to come up with a secondary world, the goal is to use not too much of the existing world…"

"…You’re still putting a pretty hefty mental commitment into making a short story. Even though it’s relatively brief, you still have to come up with a world that’s coherent. I find short stories almost as difficult to write as novels, it’s just less time-consuming. Short stories are hard for me. That’s why the collection is something like fifteen years worth of short stories. They asked me to write several new ones for the collection and I was just like, Not likely to happen. In fact, I can really only write them when I’m between novels because they take away from whatever energy I’m trying to pour into a novel."

"This is the year in which I get to smile at all of those naysayers – every single mediocre insecure wannabe who fixes their mouth to suggest that I do not belong on this stage, that people like me cannot possibly have earned such an honour, that when they win it it’s meritocracy but when we win it it’s ‘identity politics’ –… I get to smile at those people, and lift a massive, shining, rocket-shaped middle finger in their direction."

"“These accomplishments are what make a home comfortable.” Melody said, “I thought that a home was made comfortable by those who live in it and their regard for one another.” “This is true, Miss Melody, but if one presumes the affection which should be in all homes, then those homes which are most comfortable are also those which possess an understanding and appreciation for the arts.”"

"They could not see the effort which went into the art, and would consequently grow bored with it more quickly."

"“Murder, I’m afraid, if someone does not intervene.” He laughed. “Oh, you women are so melodramatic. Do no expect me to catch you when you faint.” “I would rather hit the ground. Good day, sir.”"

"Without passion there is no art, only technique."

"“But this would be such a fine match, don’t you think?” Mrs. Ellsworth insisted. “He dances well, but more than that I am not willing to say without any acquaintance with his character.”"

"I was nodding off on the streetcar home from work when I saw the woman getting on. She was wearing the body I used to have! The shock woke me right up: It was my original, the body I had replaced two years before, same full, tarty-looking lips; same fat thighs, rubbing together with every step; same outsize ass; same narrow torso that seemed grafted onto a lower body a good three sizes bigger, as though God had glued leftover parts together."

"“I can’t keep giving my will into other people hands no more, ain’t? I have to decide what I want to do for myself.” No answer. It wasn’t going to tell her."

"“Mami,” Ti-Jeanne said, “I should go and get Baby. He ain’t take to Tony.” “Hmph. Child got some sense, then. More than some I could name. But leave he there. He have to learn that he can’t always have what he want.”"

"I've learned I can trust that humans in general will strive to make things better for themselves and their communities. Not all of us. Not always in principled, loving, or respectful ways. Often the direst opposite, in fact. But we're all on the same spinning ball of dirt, trying to live as best we can."

"Throughout the Caribbean, under different names, you'll find stories about people who aren't what they seem. Skin gives these skin folk their human shape. When the skin comes off, their true selves emerge. They may be owls. They may be vampiric balls of fire. And always, whatever the burden their skins bear, once they remove them once they get under their own skins-they can fly. It seemed an apt metaphor to use for these stories collectively."