Catherynne Valente

But Dess wasn’t shining. He was just a dumb tart in someone else’s frock staring down failure like you could ever make failure blink. Failure was here before you and she’ll be here after you and she won’t even notice you go

Only the uncool have the requisite alone time to advance their species.

There’s no real power in this—it’s just something I do to try to make myself less afraid when the monsters are near

’s like a throat that doesn’t start with a mouth or end in lungs

and then the throat sighs behind me

big, heavy gust of moist air tickles the hairs on my skin

when I turn back, it’s still just paint on a rooftop

and I ain’t never been right in the head

Yes. The city is breathing easier

This is the lesson: great cities are like any other living things, being born and maturing and wearying and dying in their turn