Clive Barker

““Believe nothing,” Apolline advised. “This woman wouldn’t know the truth if it fucked her.””

“Among their members were some of the wealthiest individuals in the world; between them, fortunes sufficient to trade in nations. None of the seven had a name that would have meant anything to the hoi polloi—they were, like the truly mighty, anonymously great.”

“True joy is a profound remembering; and true grief the same.”

““And us?” said the Hag. “What happens to us then? Will we be free?”“No,” she conceded, with a soft sigh of distress. “You may be right, sister.””

“Of course, there was Hobart. The Inspector was probably insane, but that was all to the good. And he had one particular aspiration which Shadwell knew he might one day need to turn to his own ends. That was, to lead—as Hobart put it—a righteous crusade.”

“...Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body which will be given up for you...Talk of Power and Might would always attract an audience. Lords never went out of fashion.”

“It was absurd and frustrating, to feel so much and know so little.”

“Perhaps there was a natural process at work here; a means by which the mind dealt with experiences that contradicted a lifetime’s prejudices about the nature of reality. People simple forgot.”

“Shadwell threw down his gun, and—though he had no taste for abattoirs—forced himself to survey the carnage before him. It was, he knew, the responsibility of one aspiring to godhood never to look away. Willful ignorance was the last refuge of humanity, and that was a condition he would soon have transcended.And, when he studied the scene, it wasn’t so unbearable. He could look at the tumble of corpses and see them for the empty sacks they were.”

“What the enemy believed of you was probably true, or else why were you enemies in the first place?”

“Life and wisdom. What more could anybody ask?”

“Godhood called, and he went, fleet-footed, to worship at his own altar.”

“What can be imagined——need never be lost.”

“I'm not the expert on the great gameplay. I come in for the character design, monsters, atmosphere. I'm not the technician.”

“She told him she made a rule of never marrying bankers. The next day he sent flowers, and a note saying that he’d relinquished his profession.”

“As to the remnants of his army—those Seerkind who’d embraced the Prophet’s visions—they’d been the authors of their own punishment, waking from their evangelical nightmare to find it had destroyed all they held dear.”

“Suzanna didn’t wait for confirmation. There was no use disbelieving the worst now.”

“So he believes. The truth may be more...complex.”

“Always the sightseers: open-mouthed, disbelieving. There was a force for desolation loose in their midst which could consume their lives at a glance, surely they could see that? But they’d watch anyway, willing to embrace the void if it came with sufficient razzmatazz.”

“There was such sanity in his voice; a politician’s sanity, as he sold his flock the wisdom of the bomb. This soulless certainty was more chilling than hysteria or malice.”

““Don’t be sentimental,” he chided. “Memories aren’t enough.”It was fruitless to argue the niceties of that: he was telling her that he was in pain; he didn’t want platitudes or metaphysics.”

““Don’t worry,” he told her.“Me?” she said. “I never worry. It’s all going to end badly whether I worry or not.””

““Are you coming?” he said.Maybe it would be never, then. She was so transfixed by the formidable power being unleashed in front of her, she couldn’t avert her astonished gaze. It fascinated her that strength of this magnitude should be turned to the sordid business of atrocity; something was wrong with a reality that made that possible, and offered no cure for it, nor hope of cure.”

“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”

“The moon had risen behind him, the color of a shark's underbelly. It lit the ruined walls, and the skin of his arms and hands, with its sickly light, making him long for a mirror in which to study his face. Surely he'd be able to see the bones beneath the meat; the skull gleaming the way his teeth gleamed when he smiled. After all, wasn't that what a smile said? Hello, world, this is the way I'll look when the wet parts are rotted.”

“There is no such thing as originality. It has all been said before, suffered before. If a person knows that, is it any wonder love becomes mechanical and death just a scene to be shunned? There is no absolute knowledge to be gained from either. Just another ride on the merry-go-round, another blurred scene of faces smiling and faces grieved.”

“I dreamed I spoke in another's language,”

“It is the creature that stands at the center of horror movies, not those who have made it their business to bring the beast down. We're all the same.”

“It is great good health to believe, as the Hindus do, that there are 33 million gods and goddesses in the world. It is great good health to want to understand one's dreams. It is great good health to desire the ambiguous and paradoxical.”

“My imagination is my polestar; I steer by that.”

“I dreamed I spoke in another's language,”

“My imagination is my polestar; I steer by that.”

“It is the creature that stands at the center of horror movies, not those who have made it their business to bring the beast down. We're all the same.”

“Funny that. We live in islands of Hours and we never seem to have time enough for anything...”

“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”

“Non-fiction contains facts, fiction contains truth.”

“By and large, horror fiction is the most difficult to domesticate because part of the point is that it's one step ahead – or behind – everybody else's taste. And I'm not really convinced I'd like it to change. There's something very healthy about horror fiction being always a little bit on the outside. It's the wild-dog genre.”

“Every body is a book of blood;Wherever we're opened, we're red.”

“If we have nothing to do but service our own pleasure – because society has taught us that's all we're worth and we're exiled from positions of authority from which we could actually shape society – then we just become hedonists. Eventually, despite how great it may look on Saturday night, come Monday morning there's just purposelessness.”

“I was a weird little kid. I was very irritable, bored, frustrated. I felt my imagination bubbling inside my head without having any way to express itself. Given a crayon and paper, I would not draw a train or a house. I would draw these monsters, beasts and demons.”

“I've held a brain in my hands, which is an extraordinary experience.”

“Memory, prophecy and fantasy To use it is the Art.”

“Movies are much more fascist than books. They tell you what to feel, when to feel it. Popular movies manipulate you. Music tells you when it's a sad part and when it's a happy part. You're obliged to watch them at the speed the filmmaker has created for you. That, I think, is one of the reasons why they're so popular - because you don't have to think very hard. The filmmaker has done all the thinking for you.”

“The fact that Pinhead is a character that audiences want to watch, that women find sexy, that people have tattooed on their own bodies, I think, is perfectly extraordinary, and I'm incredibly pleased about it. I don't think an analysis of what he does in the movies ever completely illuminates the charm that the guy has.”

“The monsters act out our rage. They act on their worst impulses, which is appealing to a certain part of us. They get punished for it, but we've enjoyed the spectacle of their liberation.”

“[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.”

“The paintings of Francis Bacon to my eye are very beautiful. The paintings of Bosch or Goya are to my eye very beautiful. I've also stood in front of those same paintings with people who've said, "let's get on to the Botticellis as soon as possible." I have lingered, of course.”

“It is great good health to believe, as the Hindus do, that there are 33 million gods and goddesses in the world. It is great good health to want to understand one's dreams. It is great good health to desire the ambiguous and paradoxical.”

“Writing a book is like masturbation, and making a movie is like an orgy.”

“Your average game show host on TV, for instance, doesn't believe himself to be banal. He actually thinks that he's quite interesting. And if you look at the viewing figures, so do an enormous number of people in this country.”

“We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived; and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present.”

“Here is a list of fearful things:which counts us out our numbered days.”

“Life is short,the sea is!”

“Lilia sighed. “Why me?” she said, still shaking. “Why should I have to tell it?”“Because you’re the best liar,” Jerichau replied with a tight smile. “You can make it true.””