Octavia Estelle Butler是一位美国科幻作家。作为雨果奖和星云奖的多位获奖者，她在1995年成为第一位获得麦克阿瑟奖学金的科幻作家。
When I was between 2 and 3 years old, I got to know my first non-human being. The non-human was a cocker spaniel named Baba. We weren't friends, Baba and I, nor enemies. He wasn't my dog. He belonged to the people my mother worked for, and he lived in the house with them and us.
当我2到3岁的时候，我认识了我的第一个非人类。这只非人犬是一只名叫巴巴的可卡猎犬。我们不是朋友，爸爸和我，也不是敌人。他不是我的狗。他属于我母亲工作的人，他和他们和我们住在一起。
Hollywood wants to go for the flash, because that's what a lot of them think science fiction is.
好莱坞想拍闪光灯，因为很多人都认为这是科幻小说。
The norm is white, apparently, in the view of people who see things in that way. For them, the only reason you would introduce a black character is to introduce this kind of abnormality. Usually, it's because you're telling a story about racism or at least about race.
很显然，在以这种方式看待事物的人看来，标准是白人。对他们来说，你引入黑人角色的唯一原因就是引入这种异常。通常，这是因为你在讲一个关于种族主义的故事，或者至少是关于种族的故事。
I'm comfortably asocial - a hermit in the middle of a large city, a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty and drive.
我是一个舒适的非社会主义者——一个大城市中心的隐士，一个不小心就悲观的人，一个女权主义者，一个黑人，一个前浸礼会教徒，一个雄心勃勃、懒惰、不安全、确定和干劲的油和水的结合体。
Tolerance, like any aspect of peace, is forever a work in progress, never completed, and, if we're as intelligent as we like to think we are, never abandoned.
宽容，就像和平的任何方面一样，永远是一项进行中的工作，永远不会完成，如果我们像我们想象的那样聪明，永远不会被抛弃。
A workshop is a way of renting an audience, and making sure you're communicating what you think you're communicating. It's so easy as a young writer to think you're been very clear when in fact you haven't.
研讨会是一种租用观众的方式，确保你在传达你认为你在传达的东西。作为一个年轻的作家，你很容易认为自己很清楚，而事实上你并不清楚。
Beware, all too often we say what we hear others say. We think what we are told that we think. We see what we are permitted to see. Worse, we see what we are told that we see.
小心，我们经常说别人说的话。我们认为我们被告知我们认为。我们看到了我们被允许看到的东西。更糟的是，我们看到的是别人告诉我们看到的。
Simple peck-order bullying is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world.
简单的派克秩序欺凌只是等级行为的开始，这种等级行为可能导致种族主义、性别歧视、种族中心主义、古典主义以及所有其他在世界上造成如此多痛苦的“主义”。