Deathless Catherynne Valente Quotes & Sayings

In Russian fairy tales, the narrative flows a little differently. In those stories, you won't find a tale for Cinderella, one for Snow White, one for Rapunzel. Instead, a peculiar cast of characters recurs over and over, in nearly every story, performing different acts and suffering different sorrows, but remaining the same. Ivan the Fool. Yelena the Bright. Baba Yaga. Vasilisa the Brave. Koschei the Deathless. — Catherynne M Valente

When you are this hungry, you cannot even remember who you used to be, she whispered. Who you might have been, if not for the hunger. — Catherynne M Valente

Why is it safe for you and not for me?" whispered Marya Morevna.
"Because you're still a girl." The vintovnik grinned. "Girls have to obey rules. Chyerti break them. — Catherynne M Valente

Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye. — Catherynne M Valente

That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you'd have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines. — Catherynne M Valente

She knew herself, how she had slowly, over years, become a cat, a wolf, a snake, anything but a girl. How she had wrung out her girlhood like death. — Catherynne M Valente

Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it. — Catherynne M Valente

Koschei the Deathless made a face as he tasted the wine. It is far too sweet. Comrade Stalin fears bitterness and has the tastes of a spoiled princess. I savor bitterness
it is born of experience. It is the privilege of one who has truly lived. You, too, must learn to prefer it. After all, when all else is gone, you may still have bitterness in abundance. — Catherynne M Valente

Let us be greedy together; let us hoard. Let us hit each other with birch branches and lock each other in dungeons; let us drink each other's blood in the night and betray each other in the sun. Let us lie and lust and take hundreds of lovers; let us dance until snow melts between us. Let us steal and eat until we grow fat and roll in the pleasures of life, clutching each other for purchase. — Catherynne M Valente

There is no better teacher of rough necessity than bad luck, and you will have great use of me, I promise. — Catherynne M Valente