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

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

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

The younger man stepped away from the table and came toward me, his whole posture radiating menace. Every Darren 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

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

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

— N.K. Jemisin

Urgency and despair don't get along well.

— N.K. Jemisin

We aren't human."" Yes. We. Are." His voice turns fierce. "I don't give a shit what the something-something council of big important farts decreed, or how the forests 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

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

— N.K. Jemisin

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