But the thought arrived inside her like a train: Marya Morevna, all in black, here and now, was a point at which all the women she had been metโthe Yaichkan and the Leningrader and the chyerti maiden; the girl who saw the birds, and the girl who never didโthe woman she was and the woman she might have been and the woman she would always be, forever intersecting and colliding, a thousand birds falling from a thousand oaks, over and over.
Catherynne M. ValenteFirst, the avid student must be aware that when the world was young it knew only seven things: water, life and death, salt, night, birds and the length of an hour.
Catherynne M. ValenteWhy should he be spared?' 'Someone ought to be.' And it will not be me. I have survived, but I have not been spared.
Catherynne M. ValenteThere is no such thing as a people who are all wicked or even all good. Everyone chooses. But even they, even they looked at people and saw only tools. No one is a cup for another to drink from.
Catherynne M. Valente