N.k. Jemisin Quotes

For all those that have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question.

~ N.k. Jemisin

You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I tire of your whining.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Syl Anagist's assimilation of the world had been over a century before I was ever made; all cities were Syl Anagist. All languages had become Sylanagistine. But there were none so frightened, or so strange in their fear, as conquerors. They conjure phantoms endlessly, terrified that their victims will someday do back what was done to them - even if, in truth, their victims couldn't care less about such pettiness and have moved on. Conquerors live in dread of the day when they are shown to be, not superior, but simply lucky.

~ N.k. Jemisin

I remembered Nahadoth's lips on my throat and fought to suppress a shudder, only half succeeding. Death as a consequence of lying with a god wasn't something I had considered, but it did not surprise me. A mortal man's strength had its limits. He spent himself and slept. He could be a good lover, but even his best skills were only guesswork - for every caress that sent a woman's head into the clouds, he might try ten that brought her back to earth.

~ N.k. Jemisin

In the future, as in the present, as in the past, black people will build many new worlds.This is true. I will make it so. And you will help me.

~ N.k. Jemisin

There is such a thing as too much loss. Too much has been taken from you both - taken and taken and taken, until there's nothing left but hope, and you've given that up because it hurts too much. Until you would rather die, or kill, or avoid attachments altogether, than lose one more thing.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Suffering is part of life,' she said. 'All the parts of life are jumbled up together; you can't separate out just the one thing.' She parred his hand again, kindly. 'I could let you kill me now, lovely man, and have peace and good dreams forever. But who knows what I get instead, if I stay? Maybe time to see a new grandchild. Maybe a good joke that sets me laughing for days. Maybe another handsome young fellow flirting with me.' She grinned toothlessly, then let loose another horrible, racking cough. Ehiru steadies her with shaking hands. 'I want every moment of my life, pretty man, the painful and the sweet alike. Until the very end. If these are all the memories I get for eternity, I want to take as many of them with me as I can.

~ N.k. Jemisin

So here is why I write what I do: We all have futures. We all have pasts. We all have stories. And we all, every single one of us, no matter who we are and no matter what’s been taken from us or what poison we’ve internalized or how hard we’ve had to work to expel it –– we all get to dream.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Jija killed his own son for what a completely different person did, long before that son's birth. This, more than anything, helps her finally understand that there is no reasoning with her father's hatred.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Denying what you are didn't keep people from knowing what you are.And flaunting it isn't what saved you.Ykka takes a deep breath. The muscles in her jaw flex, relax. And that would be why I asked you do this, Cutter. But let's move on.So it goes on.

~ N.k. Jemisin

I think,' Hoa says slowly, 'that if you love someone, you don't get to choose how they love you back.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Because that is how one survives eternity,” I say, “or even a few years. Friends. Family. Moving with them. Moving forward.

~ N.k. Jemisin

The younger man stepped away from the table and came toward me, his whole posture radiating menace. Every Darre woman is taught to deal with such behavior from men. It is an animal trick that they use, like dogs ruffling their fur and growling. Only rarely is there an actual threat behind it, and a woman's strength lies in discerning when the threat is real and when it is just hair and noise.

~ N.k. Jemisin

The body fades. A leader who would last relies on more.

~ N.k. Jemisin

And once upon a time I wondered: Is writing epic fantasy not somehow a betrayal? Did I not somehow do a disservice to my own reality by paying so much attention to the power fantasies of disenchanted white men?But. Epic fantasy is not merely what Tolkien made it.This genre is rooted in the epic — and the truth is that there are plenty of epics out there which feature people like me. Sundiata’s badass mother. Dihya, warrior queen of the Amazighs. The Rain Queens. The Mino Warriors. Hatshepsut’s reign. Everything Harriet Tubman ever did. And more, so much more, just within the African components of my heritage. I haven’t even begun to explore the non-African stuff. So given all these myths, all these examinations of the possible… how can I not imagine more? How can I not envision an epic set somewhere other than medieval England, about someone other than an awkward white boy? How can I not use every building-block of my history and heritage and imagination when I make shit up?And how dare I disrespect that history, profane all my ancestors’ suffering and struggles, by giving up the freedom to imagine that they’ve won for me.

~ N.k. Jemisin

We can never be gods, after all--but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.

~ N.k. Jemisin

It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all - but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.

~ N.k. Jemisin

They live forever. But many of them are even more lonely and miserable than we are. Why do you think they bother with us? We teach them life's value.

~ N.k. Jemisin

We aren't human.Yes. We. Are. His voice turns fierce. I don't give a shit what the something-somethingth council of big important farts decreed, or how the geomests classify things, or any of that. That we're not human is just the lie they tell themselves so they don't have to feel bad about how they treat us.

~ N.k. Jemisin

But for a society build on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.

~ N.k. Jemisin

He has come to seduce the god of seduction, and oh, has he come prepared.

~ N.k. Jemisin

How terrible to be a god of change and endure grief unending.

~ N.k. Jemisin

In a child's eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.

~ N.k. Jemisin

The way of the world isn't the strong devouring the weak, but the weak deceiving and poisoning and whispering in the ears of the strong until they become weak, too.

~ N.k. Jemisin

How can we prepare for the future if we won’t acknowledge the past?

~ N.k. Jemisin

All that stuff about Father Earth, it's just stories to explain what's wrong with the world. Like those weird cults that crop up from time to time. I heard of one that asks an old man in the sky to keep them alive every time they go to sleep. People need to believe there's more to the world than there is.

~ N.k. Jemisin

This means, in a way, that true light is dependent on the presence of other lights. Take the others away and darkness results. Yet the reverse is not true: take away darkness and there is only more darkness. Darkness can exist by itself. Light cannot.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Inevitable is not the same as immediate, Sieh--and love does not mandate forgiveness.

~ N.k. Jemisin

...and when I lift my head to scream out my fury, a million stars turn black and die. No one can see them, but they are my tears.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Who misses what they have never, ever even imagined?

~ N.k. Jemisin

You're very lucky... Friends are precious, powerful things - hard to earn, harder still to keep. You should thank this one for taking a chance on you.

~ N.k. Jemisin

You have seen so much purposeless suffering that at least being killed for a reason can be borne?

~ N.k. Jemisin

Love betrayed has an entirely different sound from hatred outright.

~ N.k. Jemisin

But when I got angry, my nerves sought an outlet, and my mouth didn't always guard the gates.

~ N.k. Jemisin

But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always a little love left, underneath.Yes. Horrible, isn't it?

~ N.k. Jemisin

So there was love, once. More than love. And now there is more than hate. Mortals have no words for what we gods feel. Gods have no words for such things. But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always love left, underneath. Horrible, isn't it?

~ N.k. Jemisin

It is the lies he's telling her - as he has been, Nassun understands suddenly, her whole life - that really break her heart. He's said that he loves her, after all, but that obviously isn't true. He cannot love an orogene, and that is what she is. He cannot be an orogene's father, and that is why he constantly demands she be something other than what she is.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Everyone _shouldn't_ have a say in whose life is worth fighting for.

~ N.k. Jemisin

True peace required the presence of justice, not just the absence of conflict.

~ N.k. Jemisin

Myths tell us what those like us have done, can do, should do. Without myths to lead the way, we hesitate to leap forward. Listen to the wrong myths, and we might even go back a few steps.

~ N.k. Jemisin