The old order, it is good for the old. A farmer wants his son to be afraid of beautiful women, so that he will not leave home too soon, so he tells a story about how one drowned his brotherโs cousinโs friend in a lake, not because he was a pig who deserved to be drowned, but because beautiful women are bad, and also witches. And it doesnโt matter that she didnโt ask to be beautiful, or to be born in a lake, or to live forever, or to not know how men breathe until they stop doing it.
Catherynne M. ValenteI've always had enough, even if my enough and your enough are as different as an elephant and a minaret.
Catherynne M. ValenteMarya Morevna, we are better at this than you are. We can hold two terrible ideas at once in our hearts. Never have your folk delighted us more, been more like family. For a devil, hypocrisy is a parlour game, like charades. Such fun, and when the evening is done we shall be holding our bellies to keep from dying of laughter.
Catherynne M. Valente