10 Badass N.K. Jemisin Quotes

If you’re not familiar with N.K. Jemisin or her three-times Hugo-winning fantasy trilogy, you’re probably missing out on the stunning, badass lines that appear in her writing. No worries, we’re on it.

Her works entertain and captivate while exploring themes such as race, oppression, power, love and environmentalism. So here are ten awesome quotes from N.K. Jemisin.

1. “But there are 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 ”

― from The Stone Sky

2. “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.”

― from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

3. “When we say “the world has ended,” it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine. But this is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. For the last time.”

— fromThe Fifth Season

4. “Inevitable is not the same as immediate, Sieh—and love does not mandate forgiveness.”

— fromThe Kingdom of Gods

5. “Choose how your nature shapes you. Embrace it. Find the strength in it.”

— from The Inheritance trilogy

6. “They’re afraid because we exist, she says. There’s nothing we did to provoke their fear, other than exist. There’s nothing we can do to earn their approval, except stop existing – so we can either die like they want, or laugh at their cowardice and go on with our lives.”

— from The Stone Sky

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

— from The Killing Moon

8. “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

9. “Well, some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don’t lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place.”

— from The Stone Sky

10. “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.”

— from Well-read Black Girl