If You Want A Thing--truly Want It, Want It So Badly That You Need It As You Need Air To Breathe, Then Unless You Die, You Will Have It. Why Not? It Has You. There Is No Escape. What A Cruel And Terrible Thing Escape Would Be If Escape Were Possible

-Octavia Butler

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More From Octavia Butler

Civilization Is The Way One's Own People Live. Savagery Is The Way Foreigners Live.

Civilization

People

Way

If There's Any Single Talent A Writer Needs, It's Persistence. If You Can Keep At Your Writing And You Can Learn As You Write, You Can Tell Any Story You Want To Tell.

Writing

Persistence

Needs

When Your Rage Is Choking You, It Is Best To Say Nothing.

Rage

Choke

To Get Along With God, Consider The Consequences Of Your Behavior. Earthseed: The Books Of The Living

Book

Behavior

Consequence

It's Interesting How Many Science Fiction Writers Get Going When They Are Very Young. I Was On A Program With Greg Bear And He Mentioned That He Had Gotten Started Writing When He Was Eight. And I Began Writing When I Was 10. I Think We're Influenced By The Stuff, We Find It And We Love It And We're Influenced By It....i Know I Collected My First Rejection Slip When I Was 13, And I Went On Collecting Them For A Long Time After That.

Writing

Thinking

Eight

Change Is The One Unavoidable, Irresistible, Ongoing Reality Of The Universe. To Us, That Makes It The Most Powerful Reality, And Just Another Word For God. Earthseed: The Books Of The Living Lauren Oya Olamina

Powerful

Book

Reality

Beware At War Or At Peace, More People Die Of Unenlightened Self-interest Than Of Any Other Disease

War

Self

People

People Who Want To Write Either Do It Or They Don't. At Last I Began To Say That My Most Important Talent - Or Habit - Was Persistence. Without It, I Would Have Given Up Writing Long Before I Finished My First Novel. It's Amazing What We Can Do If We Simply Refuse To Give Up.

Giving Up

Writing

Persistence

And By The Way, I Wanted To Point Out That Kindred Is Not Science Fiction. You'll Note There's No Science In It. It's A Kind Of Grim Fantasy.

Fiction

Way

Fantasy

No One Was Going To Stop Me From Writing And No One Had To Really Guide Me Towards Science Fiction. It Was Natural, Really, That I Would Take That Interest.

Writing

Fiction

Natural

Third, For People Who Aren't Doing It Already, Take Classes - They're Worthwhile. Workshops Or Classes - A Workshop Is Where You Do Actually Get Feedback On Your Work, Not Just Something Where You Go And Sit For A Day.

Class

People

Feedback

I Would Never Have Been A Good Scientist - My Attention Span Was Too Short For That.

Attention

Too Short

Scientist

The Only Lasting Truth Is Change. God Is Change.

Truth Is

Lasting

Change God

No, I Think The Future Of Humanity Will Be Like The Past, We'll Do What We've Always Done And There Will Still Be Human Beings. Granted, There Will Always Be People Doing Something Different And There Are A Lot Of Possibilities.

Past

Thinking

People

Life Is Getting Better, But That Won't Stop A War If Politicians And Business People Decide It's To Their Advantage To Have One.

War

People

Get Better

When I Meet A Woman Who Attracts Me, I Prefer Women,' She Said. 'and When I Meet A Man Who Attracts Me, I Prefer Men.' 'you Mean You Haven't Made Up Your Mind Yet.' 'i Mean Exactly What I Said. I Told You You Wouldn't Like It. Most People Who Ask Want Me Definitely On One Side Or The Other.

Mean

Men

People

Not Everyone Has Been A Bully Or The Victim Of Bullies, But Everyone Has Seen Bullying, And Seeing It, Has Responded To It By Joining In Or Objecting, By Laughing Or Keeping Silent, By Feeling Disgusted Or Feeling Interested.

Bullying

Joining In

Laughing

The Differences You Perceive Between Humans-between Groups Of Humans-are The Result Of Isolation And Inbreeding, Mutation, And Adaptation To Different Earth Environments

Differences

Inbreeding

Groups

The Essentials Are To Learn To Shape God With Forethought, Care, And Work; To Educate And Benefit Their Community, Their Families And Themselves; And To Contribute To The Fulfillment Of The Destiny.

Destiny

Community

Essentials

I Recognize We Will Pay More Attention When We Have Different Leadership.

Different

Attention

Pay

I Wanted To Write A Novel That Would Make Others Feel The History: The Pain And Fear That Black People Have Had To Live Through In Order To Endure.

Pain

Writing

Order

I'm A Fifty-three-year-old Writer Who Can Remember Being A Ten-year-old Writer And Who Expects Someday To Be An Eighty-year-old Writer.

Years

Three

Fifty

The Destiny Of Earthseed Is To Take Root Among The Stars.

Stars

Destiny

Roots

Listen, No Part Of Me Is More Definitive Of Who I Am Than My Brain.

Who I Am

Brain

Beware: Ignorance Protects Itself. Ignorance Promotes Suspicion. Suspicion Engenders Fear. Fear Quails, Irrational And Blind, Or Fear Looms, Defiant And Closed. Blind, Closed, Suspicious, Afraid, Ignorance Protects Itself, And Protected, Ignorance Grows.

Ignorance

Blind

Quails

The Only Black People You Found Were Occasional Characters Or Characters Who Were So Feeble-witted That They Couldn't Manage Anything, Anyway. I Wrote Myself In, Since I'm Me And I'm Here And I'm Writing.

Writing

Character

People

To Be Led By A Fool Is To Be Led By The Opportunists Who Control The Fool.

Fool

Opportunist

Forethought

Religion Is A Dangerous Prod, Because It Can Always Be Misused And Get Out Of Hand, But It's Useful For Keeping People On The Straight And Narrow.

Women

Hands

People

The Big Talent Is Persistence.

Persistence

Talent

Bigs

Drowning People Sometimes Die Fighting Their Rescuers.

Fighting

People

Sometimes

Religion Kept Some Of My Relatives Alive, Because It Was All They Had. If They Hadn't Had Some Hope Of Heaven, Some Companionship In Jesus, They Probably Would Have Committed Suicide, Their Lives Were So Hellish.

Suicide

Jesus

Heaven

Be Who You Are And Not Who Someone Else Thinks You Ought To Be.

Thinking

Be Who You Are

Ought

I Have A Huge And Savage Conscience That Won't Let Me Get Away With Things.

Savages

Fierce

Get Away

I'm A Pessimist If I'm Not Careful, A Feminist, A Black,...an Oil-and-water Combination Of Ambition, Laziness, Insecurity, Certainty, And Drive.

Ambition

Oil And Water

Feminist

Better To Stay Alive," I Said. "at Least While There's A Chance To Get Free." I Thought Of The Sleeping Pills In My Bag And Wondered Just How Great A Hypocrite I Was. It Was So Easy To Advise Other People To Live With Their Pain.

Pain

Hypocrite

Sleep

Consider We Are Born Not With Purpose, But With Potential.

Purpose

Born

The Child In Each Of Us Knows Paradise. Paradise Is Home. Home As It Was Or Home As It Should Have Been. Paradise Is One's Own Place, One's Own People, One's Own World, Knowing And Known, Perhaps Even Loving And Loved. Yet Every Child Is Cast From Paradise- Into Growth And New Community, Into Vast, Ongoing Change.

Children

Home

Should Have

Margaret Weylin Complained Because She Couldn't Find Anything To Complain About.

Complaining

Here I Was Into Astronomy, And Here Into Anthropology, And There I Go Into Geology. It Was Much More Fun To Be Able To Research And Write About Whatever I Wanted To.

Fun

Writing

Research

All That You Touch You Change. All That You Change Changes You. The Only Lasting Truth Is Change. God Is Change.

Change

God

Truth Is

People Have The Right To Call Themselves Whatever They Like. That Doesn't Bother Me. It's Other People Doing The Calling That Bothers Me.

Freedom

Equality

Rights

In My Years, I Have Seen That People Must Be Their Own Gods And Make Their Own Good Fortune. The Bad Will Come Or Not Come Anyway.

Years

People

Fortune

And I Have This Little Litany Of Things They Can Do. And The First One, Of Course, Is To Write - Every Day, No Excuses. It's So Easy To Make Excuses. Even Professional Writers Have Days When They'd Rather Clean The Toilet Than Do The Writing.

Writing

Toilets

Littles

That Which Could Hunger, Could Starve.

Hunger

Science Fiction Let Me Do Both. It Let Me Look Into Science And Stick My Nose In Everywhere.

Looks

Fiction

Noses

...i Can Write My Own Stories And I Can Write Myself In.

Writing

Stories

My Own

No... A Novel Is A Long Business. I'm A Slow Writer, Even When I'm Doing Very Well I Write Slowly.

Writing

Long

Comeback

Forget Inspiration. Habit Is More Dependable.

Inspiration

Forget

Habit

You Are Hierarchical. That's The Older And More Entrenched Characteristic. We Saw It In Your Closest Animal Relatives And In Your Most Distant Ones. It's A Terrestrial Characteristic. When Human Intelligence Served It Instead Of Guiding It, When Human Intelligence Did Not Even Acknowledge It As A Problem, But Took Pride In It Or Did Not Notice It At All... That Was Like Ignoring Cancer.

Cancer

Pride

Animal

Souls! When Have You Seen Your Own Soul - That You're So Certain You Have One?

I'm Me, And I'm Here, And I'm Writing.

Writing

Ignorance Protects Itself, And Protected, Ignorance Grows.

Ignorance

Quails

Protect

Most Of What I Do Is Science Fiction. Some Of The Things I Do Are Fantasy. I Don't Like The Labels, They're Marketing Tools, And I Certainly Don't Worry About Them When I'm Writing. They Are Also Inhibiting Factors; You Wind Up Not Getting Read By Certain People, Or Not Getting Sold To Certain People Because They Think They Know What You Write. You Say Science Fiction And Everybody Thinks Star Wars Or Star Trek.

Stars

War

Writing

He Was Like Me - A Kindred Spirit Crazy Enough To Keep On Trying.

Crazy

Trying

Spirit

I Wasn't Trying To Work Out My Own Ancestry. I Was Trying To Get People To Feel Slavery. I Was Trying To Get Across The Kind Of Emotional And Psychological Stones That Slavery Threw At People.

Emotional

People

Work Out

Civilization Is To Groups What Intelligence Is To Individuals. It Is A Means Of Combining The Intelligence Of Many To Achieve Ongoing Group Adaptation.

Mean

Civilization

Groups

I Just Knew There Were Stories I Wanted To Tell.

Writing

Stories

Wanted

Slavery Was A Long Slow Process Of Dulling.

Long

Slavery

Process

I Was Raised Baptist, And I Like The Fact That I Got My Conscience Installed Early.

Baptists

Facts

Raised

It's When People Begin Using Their Religion As Just A Way Of Getting Power Over Other People That Scares Me. I'm Afraid That's What's Going On In A Lot Of Cases Right Now. When People Deliberately Tell Lies, Creationism For Instance, And Pretend, "oh, It's Not Really Religion." I Mean They Know They're Lying, And Yet They're The Religious People. There's Something Wrong There.

Religious

Lying

Mean

Every Story I Create, Creates Me. I Write To Create Myself.

Writing

Stories

Nothing. It Just Finds You A Lot More Attractive Than It Does Most Humans. What Can You Do With A Beautiful Woman That You Can’t Do With An Ugly One? Nothing. It’s Just A Matter Of Preference.

Beautiful

Doe

Ugly

I Have This Theory That Anything That Happens To You That Leaves You Alive And Intact Can Be Used Somewhere In Your Writing.

Writing

Alive

Used

Well, Writing Was What I Wanted To Do, It Was Always What I Wanted To Do. I Had Novels To Write So I Wrote Them.

Writing

Novel

Wells

...i Realized That I Knew Less About Loneliness Than I Had Thought - And Much Less Than I Would Know When He Went Away.

Loneliness

I Realized

Knows

Humans Said One Thing With Their Bodies And Another With Their Mouths And Everyone Had To Spend Time And Energy Figuring Out What They Really Meant. And Once You Did Understand Them, The Humans Got Angry And Acted As Though You Had Stolen Thoughts From Their Minds.

Mind

Energy

Mouths

What I'm Working On Now - I'm Back To Fantasy, Although Considering That It's Me, I'm Turning It Into A Kind Of Science Fantasy. It's A Vampire Story - But My Vampires Are Biological Vampires. They Didn't Become Vampires Because Someone Bit Them; They Were Born That Way.

Ghouls

Vampire

Stories

A Workshop Is A Way Of Renting An Audience, And Making Sure You're Communicating What You Think You're Communicating. It's So Easy As A Young Writer To Think You're Been Very Clear When In Fact You Haven't.

Thinking

Way

Facts

In Order To Rise From Its Own Ashes A Phoenix First Must Burn.

Order

Phoenix

Ashes

Dad Decided Not To Vote For Donner After All. He Didn't Vote For Anyone. He Said Politicians Turned His Stomach.

Dad

Vote

Politician

I Began Reading Science Fiction Before I Was 12 And Started Writing Science Fiction Around The Same Time.

Reading

Writing

Fiction

Sometimes Being A Friend Means Mastering The Art Of Timing. There Is A Time For Silence. A Time To Let Go And Allow People To Hurl Themselves Into Their Own Destiny. And A Time To Prepare To Pick Up The Pieces When It's All Over.

Best Friend

Friendship

Letting Go

Fantasy Is Totally Wide Open; All You Really Have To Do Is Follow The Rules You've Set. But If You're Writing About Science, You Have To First Learn What You're Writing About.

Writing

Firsts

Fantasy

I'm A 48-year-old Writer Who Can Remember Being A 10-year-old Writer And Who Expects Someday To Be An 80-year-old Writer. I'm Also Comfortably Asocial -- A Hermit In The Middle Of Los Angeles -- A Pessimist If I'm Not Careful, A Feminist, A Black, A Former Baptist, An Oil-and-water Combination Of Ambition, Laziness, Insecurity, Certainty, And Drive.

Ambition

Oil And Water

Years

On The Other Hand, I Was Very Much Interested In The Way People Behaved, The Human Dance, How They Seemed To Move Around Each Other. I Wanted To Play Around With That.

Inspirational

Dance

Moving

We Give Our Dead To The Orchards And The Groves. We Give Our Dead To Life.

Death

Giving

Grove

Every Story I Create, Creates Me. I Write To Create Myself. Every Story I Write Adds To Me A Little, Changes Me A Little, Forces Me To Reexamine An Attitude Or Belief, Causes Me To Research And Learn, Helps Me To Understand People And Grow.

Attitude

Writing

People

Helpless Lust And Unreasoning Anxiety Were Just Part Of Growing Up.

Growing Up

Anxiety

Lust

Sometimes, One Must Become A Master To Avoid Becoming A Slave.

Becoming

Sometimes

Slave

A Victim Of God May, Through Learning Adaption, Become A Partner Of God, A Victim Of God May, Through Forethought And Planning, Become A Shaper Of God. Or A Victim Of God May, Through Shortsightedness And Fear, Remain God's Victim, God's Plaything, God's Prey.

May

Planning

Victim

There's No Narcotic Like Exhaustion.

Narcotics

Exhaustion

There Is No End To What A Living World Will Demand Of You.

World

Demand

Ends

All Struggles Are Essentially Power Struggles. Who Will Rule? Who Will Lead? Who Will Define, Refine, Confine, Design? Who Will Dominate? All Struggles Are Essentially Power Struggles,and Most Are No More Intellectual Than Two Rams Knocking Their Heads Together.

Struggle

Two

Design

We're All Capable Of Climbing So Much Higher Than We Usually Permit Ourselves To Suppose.

Confidence

Climbing

Permit

I'm Trying To Speak--to Write-the Truth. I"m Trying To Be Clear. I'm Not Interested In Being Fancy, Or Even Original. Clarity And Truth Will Be Plenty, If I Can Only Achieve Them.

Writing

Trying

Fancy

But My Problem With Fantasy, And Horror, And Related Genres, Is That Sometimes The Problems Are Illogical.

Genre Is

Fantasy

Problem

A Tree Cannot Grow In Its Parents' Shadows.

Tree

Parent

Shadow

Humans Persecute Their Different Ones, Yet They Need Them To Give Themselves Definition And Status.

Giving

Different

Needs

First Forget Inspiration. Habit Is More Dependable. Habit Will Sustain You Whether You're Inspired Or Not. Habit Will Help You Finish And Polish Your Stories. Inspiration Won't. Habit Is Persistence In Practice.

Inspiration

Writing

Persistence

Writing Is One Of The Few Professions In Which You Can Psychoanalyse Yourself, Get Rid Of Hostilities And Frustrations In Public, And Get Paid For It.

Writing

Frustration

Profession

You Are Horror And Beauty In Rare Combination.

Beauty

Horror

Combination

Civilization Is To Groups What Intelligence Is To Individuals. It Is A Means Of Combining The Intelligence Of Many To Achieve Ongoing Group Adaptation. Civilization, Like Intelligence, May Serve Well, Serve Adequately, Or Fail To Serve Its Adaptive Function. When Civilization Fails To Serve, It Must Disintegrate Unless It Is Acted Upon By Unifying Internal Or External Forces.

Mean

Civilization

Intelligence

Tolerance, Like Any Aspect Of Peace, Is Forever A Work In Progress, Never Completed, And, If We're As Intelligent As We Like To Think We Are, Never Abandoned.

Intelligent

Thinking

Forever

I Think People Really Need To Think What It's Like To Have All Of Society Arrayed Against You.

Thinking

People

Needs

I Lost An Arm On My Last Trip Home.

Home

Arms

Lasts

Belief Initiates And Guides Action - Or It Does Nothing.

Doe

Belief

Action

I'm Literate, And The Idea Of Leaving Children Illiterate Is Criminal.

Children

Ideas

Leaving

Choose Your Leaders With Wisdom And Forethought. To Be Led By A Coward Is To Be Controlled By All That The Coward Fears. To Be Led By A Fool Is To Be Led By The Opportunists Who Control The Fool. To Be Led By A Thief Is To Offer Up Your Most Precious Treasures To Be Stolen. To Be Led By A Liar Is To Ask To Be Told Lies. To Be Led By A Tyrant Is To Sell Yourself And Those You Love Into Slavery.

Liars

Lying

Tyrants

Rejections Are Painful, But Inevitable. They're Every Writer's Rite Of Passage.

Writing

Rejection

Painful

I Was Attracted To Science Fiction Because It Was So Wide Open. I Was Able To Do Anything And There Were No Walls To Hem You In And There Was No Human Condition That You Were Stopped From Examining.

Wall

Fiction

Hem

I Think Climbing Mountains Or Buildings Or Whatever Has Been A Really Good Metaphor For Finishing My Work. Because No Matter How Tired You Get, No Matter How You Feel Like You Can't Possibly Do This, Somehow You Do.

Tired

Thinking

Climbing

The Thing About Science Fiction Is That It's Totally Wide Open. But It's Wide Open In A Conditional Way.

Fiction

Way

Conditional

All Religions Are Ultimately Cargo Cults. Adherents Perform Required Rituals, Follow Specific Rules, And Expect To Be Supernaturally Gifted With Desired Rewards Long Life, Honor, Wisdom, Children, Good Health, Wealth, Victory Over Opponents, Immortality After Death, Any Desired Rewards.

Children

Long

Honor

Kindness Eases Change Love Quiets Fear

Kindness

Ease

You Don't Start Out Writing Good Stuff. You Start Out Writing Crap And Thinking It's Good Stuff, And Then Gradually You Get Better At It. That's Why I Say One Of The Most Valuable Traits Is Persistence.

Writing

Persistence

Thinking

We Need The Stars... We Need Purpose! We Need The Image The Destiny To Take Root Among The Stars Gives Us Of Ourselves As A Purposeful, Growing Species. We Need To Become The Adult Species That The Destiny Can Help Us Become! If We're To Be Anything Other Than Smooth Dinosaurs Who Evolve, Specialize And Die, We Need The Stars.... When We Have No Difficult, Long-term Purpose To Strive Toward, We Fight Each Other. We Destroy Ourselves. We Have These Chaotic, Apocalyptic Periods Of Murderous Craziness.

Stars

Fighting

Destiny

Most Of Us Don't Have To Worry About Being Shot Of We Poke Our Noses Outside. So We Are Comfortable, But The People I'm Writing About Are Definitely Not Comfortable, And Being Shot While They're Still Inside Is A Good Possibility.

Writing

People

Worry

Once You Grow Past Mommy And Daddy Coming Running When You're Hurt, You're Really On Your Own. You're Alone, And There's No One To Help You.

Running

Hurt

Past

Positive Obsession Is About Not Being Able To Stop Just Because You're Afraid And Full Of Doubts. Positive Obsession Is Dangerous. It's About Not Being Able To Stop At All.

Doubt

Able

Obsession

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

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