Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler
Octavia Estelle Butlerwas an American science fiction writer. A multiple recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, Butler was one of the best-known women in the field. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the "Genius Grant."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth22 June 1947
CountryUnited States of America
people
I used to give up writing like some people would give up smoking.
adds attitude causes changes forces helps people understand
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.
enormous good people
I don't write about good and evil with this enormous dichotomy. I write about people. I write about people doing the kinds of things that people do.
bought mother portable stories typewriter
I pecked my stories out two-fingered on the Remington portable typewriter my mother had bought me. I had begged for it when I was ten.
science wants
Hollywood wants to go for the flash, because that's what a lot of them think science fiction is.
Getting your writing criticized can be a lot like getting skinned, and you respond to it just as enthusiastically.
beginning behavior bullying cause lead simple suffering
Simple peck-order bullying is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world.
human religion societies whether
Religion is everywhere. There are no human societies without it, whether they acknowledge it as a religion or not.
chance period
I had a long period of writing what I think of as 'save the world' novels. 'Fledgling' was a chance to play.
actual delusional hurts
Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it's all in your head?
vampires
If vampires were a separate species, and they were into genetic engineering, what would they engineer for?
astute course fun information needed people stories time travel truth
People who think about time travel stories sometimes think that going back in time would be fun because you would have all the information you needed to be much more astute than the people there, when the truth is of course you wouldn't.
introduce norm people reason telling view
The norm is white, apparently, in the view of people who see things in that way. For them, the only reason you would introduce a black character is to introduce this kind of abnormality. Usually, it's because you're telling a story about racism or at least about race.
awkward earliest hopeless rest school shy spite sports taller
At school I was always taller than the rest of my class, and because I was an only child, I was comfortable with adults but shy and awkward with other kids. I was quiet, bookish, and in spite of my size, hopeless at sports. In short, I was different. And even in the earliest grades, I got pounded for it.