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All Quotes by author - N. K. Jemisin
" Actual Victorian mores and politics were a reaction to a specific series of historical events, technological and scientific developments, and ethical trends in which the commodification of people was de rigueur. "
Technological
People
Events
" A fantasy novel set in something other than medieval Europe, featuring an almost entirely black cast, is considered risky. "
Almost
Black
Fantasy
" All people who grew up with science fiction and fantasy and horror went through the whole acculturation process of the genre. We were all told to read the golden age writers. We were all told Heinlein and Asimov and all these straight, white males, although some of them were Jewish. "
Horror
Age
Science
" Any writer kind of who knows what they're doing goes forth and grabs a copy of an issue of something that they want to be published in, or they skim it online. They read what that market has been doing. They see a particular flavor of fiction. "
See
Flavor
Doing
" As a black woman, I have no particular interest in maintaining the status quo. Why would I? The status quo is harmful; the status quo is significantly racist and sexist and a whole bunch of other things that I think need to change. "
Woman
Need
Black
" Fantasy is fantasy. It's fiction. It's not meant to be a textbook. I don't believe in letting research overwhelm the fiction. That's a danger of science fiction in particular, as opposed to fantasy. A lot of writers forget that what they're doing is supposed to be art. "
Research
Art
Believe
" I am a linear thinker in a lot of ways. "
Ways
Am
I Am
" I don't really understand why so many fantasy writers choose to focus on worlds that just seem strangely denuded. But to them, I guess it doesn't seem strange. And I guess that's their privilege. It isn't mine. "
Strange
Choose
Focus
" If you can imagine something, it will be. "
You
Will
Imagine
" In the 'Dreamblood' books, I'm focusing more on what I like about epic fantasy: the layering and depth of tension; the chance to really delve into the minutia of an alternate society and its politics; a large cast of characters to love and hate. "
Love
Hate
Chance
" I read a lot of history for fun. "
Fun
Read
History
" I tend to like writing characters that are not typical heroes. "
Like
Heroes
Characters
" I tend to write society as I see and understand it. "
See
Understand
Write
" I think most fiction focuses on uncomfortable settings because that's interesting. "
Most
Interesting
Uncomfortable
" I think the people who believe that works can and always should be divorced from the context are people who have the privilege to do so. "
People
Think
Who
" It's hard out here for a fantasy writer, after all; there's all these 'rules' I'm supposed to follow, or the Fantasy Police might come and make me do hard labor in the Cold Iron Mines. "
Rules
Cold
Fantasy
" It's human nature that we come in our own flavours, and it doesn't make any sense to write a monochromatic or monocultural story unless you're doing something extremely small - a locked room-style story. "
You
Story
Small
" It's the way the human brain works: when enough events occur in a pattern, we stop thinking and go into macro mode. "
Thinking
Events
Enough
" It takes practice to do anything unique within this field, period, in writing, practice doing anything unique in writing. "
Unique
Practice
Doing
" I've always believed that as an artist, as a writer, you need a lot of contact with other people to make your art good. "
You
Need
People
" I've been very happy with Orbit and am thrilled that they're giving me more chances to explore my creative visions. "
Me
Creative
Explore
" I was raised to be very wary of the police. I was raised to stay away from them unless you absolutely have to. Because they're dangerous. "
Stay
Police
Away
" I would love to just write and not have everything I say or do turn into a political battle. "
Battle
Turn
Just
" I write for myself - but it is nice when other people like it, too! "
Write
People
Other
" I write what feels real. I write things that are informed both by my own experience and by actual history. "
Experience
Real
Own
" Knowing about authors' beliefs helps you understand how those beliefs influence their writing, and things you thought meant one thing, once you've got enough information about that writer, you suddenly realize mean an entirely different thing. That makes a difference. "
Thought
Writing
Influence
" Magic is the mysteries into which not everyone is so lucky, or unlucky, as to be initiated. It can be affected by belief, the whims of the unseen, harsh language. And it is not. Supposed. To make. Sense. In fact, I think it's coolest when it doesn't. "
Belief
Think
Magic
" My first series, the 'Inheritance' trilogy, in the first book, you were dealing with a woman of color from an impoverished culture, being brought up among wealthy, privileged white people and having to cope and perform in ways that she has not been raised to do, and that was obviously drawn from some personal experiences. "
Culture
You
Woman
" Reactionary movements can't sustain themselves unless they find something new to catch and burn on. "
Find
Burn
Catch
" Readers seem to really like the fact that what I'm writing is not traditional fantasy. "
Fact
Seem
Like
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