Immortality gets very, very boring. You'd be surprised at how interesting the small mundanities of life can seem after a few millennia. N.K. Jemisin More Quotes by N.K. Jemisin More Quotes From N.K. Jemisin He was dead again when I got home that day. His corpse was in the kitchen, near the counter, where it appeared he'd been chopping vegetables when the urge to stab himself through the wrist had struck. I slipped on the blood coming in, which annoyed me because that meant it was all over the kitchen floor. N.K. Jemisin vegetables home blood Loneliness is a darkness of the soul N.K. Jemisin loneliness soul darkness 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 nature ease looks The priest's lesson: beware the Nightlord, for his pleasure is a mortal's doom. My grandmother's lesson: beware love, especially with the wrong man. N.K. Jemisin grandmother lessons men 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 lonely forever thinking Rising from the dead? Glowing at sunrise? What did that make him, the god of cheerful mornings and macabre surprises? N.K. Jemisin glowing sunrise morning We worship Him not because He is the best of our gods, but because He is, or was, the greatest killer among them. N.K. Jemisin killers worship The shadows of Ina-Karekh are the place where nightmares dwell, but not their source. Never forget: the shadowlands are not elsewhere. We create them. They are within. N.K. Jemisin nightmare never-forget shadow Calling something exotic emphasizes its distance from the reader. We don't refer to things as exotic if we think of them as ordinary. We call something exotic if it's so different that we see no way to emulate it or understand how it came to be. We call someone exotic if we aren't especially interested in viewing them as people - just as objects representing their culture. N.K. Jemisin distance people thinking Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid. N.K. Jemisin funny-things employment paid If the gods do decide to wipe us out, is it such a bad thing? Maybe we've earned a little annihilation. N.K. Jemisin annihilation wipe littles I'm tired of being what everyone else has made me," I said. "I want to be myself." "Don't be a child." I looked up, startled and angry, though of course there was nothing to see. "What?" "You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I'm tired of your whining. N.K. Jemisin tired done children There is no logic to grief. N.K. Jemisin logic grief It is important to appreciate beauty, even when it is evil. N.K. Jemisin appreciate-beauty appreciate evil 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 clouds men lying But when I got angry, my nerves sought an outlet, and my mouth didn't always guard the gates. N.K. Jemisin outlets nerves mouths It was very bad if the council had resorted to recruiting men. By tradition men were our last line of defence, their physical strength bent towards the single and most important task of protecting our homes and children. This meant the council had decided that our only defence was to defeat the enemy, period. Anything else meant the end of Darre. N.K. Jemisin home men children Fortunately, where reason failed, blind panic served well enough. N.K. Jemisin panic blind reason 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 whining tire done
