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N. K. Jemisin
75 quotes
“Fear was like poison to mortals; it killed their rationality.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those with power would always find some way to exert it over those who didn’t.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At least I’m done with adolescence. Never could stand it; if I don’t want to kill someone, I want to have sex with them.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peace is meaningless without freedom.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mother always said that if one must do something unpleasant, one should do it wholeheartedly and not waste effort on regret.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We will continue to serve you, Lady, whether you’re here or not. What prayers shall we say for you at the dawn and twilight hour?” She threw me an odd look, as if checking to see if I was joking. I wasn’t This seemed to surprise and unnerve her; she laughed, though it sounded a bit forced. “Say whatever you want,” she said finally. “Someone might be listening, but it won’t be me. I have better things to do.” She vanished.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Death is the Fifth, and master of all.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Syenite wonders if there is any point in hating a crazy man. It’s not like he’ll notice, anyway.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Home is people,” she says to Asael, softly. Asael blinks. “Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Weapons have no need of friends.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My people didn’t use mysterious powers to track you; we used deduction. Much more reliable.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Honor in safety, survival under threat. Better a living coward than a dead hero.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Leadership legends have the air of a myth concocted to justify their place in society.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is surprising how refreshing this feels. Being judged by what you do, and not what you are.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Put people in a cage and they will devote themselves to escaping it, not cooperating with those who caged them.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You’re abbreviating heavily, not lying. That’s what you tell yourself.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we say that “the world has ended,” remember—it is usually a lie. The planet is just fine.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All energy is the same, through its different states and names. Movement creates heat which is also light that waves like sound which tightens or loosens the atomic bonds of crystal as they hum with strong and weak forces. In mirroring resonance with all of this is magic, the radiant emission of life and death.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Would’ve been nice if we could’ve all had normal, of course, but not enough people wanted to share. So now we all burn.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Honor in safety, survival under threat. Necessity is the only law.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nassun gasps. “That’s horrible! I don’t bother to explain that just because something is horrible does not make it any less true.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…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.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On how short story writing differs from novel writing in “A True Utopia: An Interview With N. K. Jemisin” in The Paris Review (2018 Dec 3)
“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…”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On how she structures her fantasy worlds in “A True Utopia: An Interview With N. K. Jemisin” in The Paris Review (2018 Dec 3)
“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.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even our mortal courtesans have been with gods enough to have acquired a certain ethereal technique.” He smiled a salesman’s smile, though it never once touched his eyes. “That’s what you’re selling. Not sex, but divinity.” I frowned. “Gods, Ahad, at least worship is free.” “It was never free.” His smile vanished. It hadn’t been real, anyway. “Every mortal who offered a god devotion wanted something in exchange for it—blessings, a guaranteed place in the heavens, status. And every god who demanded worship expected loyalty and more, in exchange. So why shouldn’t we be honest about what we’re doing? At least here, no god lies.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source