Deathless Quotes

“The sweetness of it all is sharpest when placed alongside sorrow, close as knife and fork. But it is my job to interrogate your happiness, to prod its corners, to make sure it holds. When a sadness chews at the bottom of your heart, it’s as though you walk all day with your dress on backwards, the buttons facing the forest, the collar facing the village. To everyone else, all may seem normal, but my eyes are so keen.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“You were so near death that ghosts crowded around you, weeping silver tears, waiting for you with such smiles. You humans, you know, whoever built you sewed irony into your sinews. Sometimes, when a person has starved nearly to nothing, feeding them will hurt them worse than starving did, and push them the rest of the way over into dead.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“The future belongs to the dead, and the makers of the dead. Men like Viy, who are blind to the deeds of their own hands, who reach out for souls. Our kind belong to him, now. We wander, lost, and you cannot even see the silver on our chests anymore, because all the human world is the Country of Death, and in thrall, and finally, after all this time, we are just like everyone else. We are all dead. All equal. Broken and aimless and believing we are alive. This is Russia and it is 1952. What else would you call hell?”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“Babushka,” Marya said, and she meant it, here, at the end of everything. “I am so tired. I am so finished with it all. How can I live in this? I want to be held by everyone I have loved and told that it is all forgiven, all done, all made well.”
“Tscha! Death is not like that. The redistribution of worlds has made everything equal—magic and cantinas and Yelenas and basements and bread and silver, silver light. Equally dead, equally bound. You will live as you live anywhere. With difficulty, and grief. Yes, you are dead. And I and my family and everyone, always, forever. All dead, like stones. But what does it matter? You still have to go to work in the morning. You still have to live.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“«Non sanno nemmeno cosa sono gli scrittori, qui!»
Baba Jaga si ammorbidi, per quanto poteva ammorbidirsi. Le sue sopracciglia intrecciate si incresparono dolcemente. «Non significa che non sappiamo cosa siano le storie. Non significa che non ci camminiamo dentro ogni secondo. I čerti – cioè noi, demoni e diavoli, piccoli e grandi – sono compulsivi. Ossessivi. È la nostra natura. Giriamo su un binario, in tondo. Marciamo al passo. Recitiamo le stesse storie, ancora e ancora, le stesse serie di movimenti, mentre il tempo si accumula come il filo intorno a un arcolaio. Ci piacciono gli schemi. Sono confortanti. A volte cambiano delle piccole cose: un'auto invece di una casa, una ragazza che non si chiama Elena. Ma non è diverso, non proprio. Mai».”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“Do you think I am a fool, Masha? All this time, and you speak to me as though I were a flighty pinprick of a girl. I am a magician! Did you never think, even once, that I loved lipstick and rouge for more than their color alone? I am a student of their lore, and it is arcane and hermetic beyond the dreams of alchemists. (...) Masha, listen to me. Cosmetics are an extension of the will. Why do you think all men paint themselves when they go to fight? When I paint my eyes to match my soup, it is not because I have nothing better to do than worry over trifles. It says, I belong here, and you will not deny me. When I streak my lips red as foxgloves, I say, Come here, male. I am your mate and you will not deny me. When I pinch my cheeks and dust them with mother-of-pearl, I say, Death, keep off, I am your enemy and you will not deny me. I say these things, and the world listens, Masha. Because my magic is a strong as an arm. I am never denied.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“was at thirteen years old that Marya Morevna learned how to keep a secret, and that secrets are jealous things, permitting no fraternization.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless