I had a connoisseur's... appreciation of fear. Peter Straub More Quotes by Peter Straub More Quotes From Peter Straub The world is full of ghosts, and some of them are still people. Peter Straub ghost people world What would be frightening about me jumping out of the bush wearing a pig mask is not the sudden surprise, not me, and not the pig mask, but that the ordinary world had split open for a moment to reveal some possibility never previously considered. Peter Straub ordinary-world jumping pigs Every writer must acknowledge and be able to handle the unalterable fact that he has, in effect, given himself a life sentence in solitary confinement. The ordinary world of work is closed to him - and that if he's lucky! Peter Straub ordinary-world lucky writing To feel our character, our personality, and our personal, hard-won history fade from being is to be exposed to whatever lies beneath these comforting, operational conveniences. What remains when the conscious and functioning self has been erased is mankind's fundamental condition – irrational, violent, guilt-wracked, despairing, and mad. Peter Straub self character lying Occasionally.. .what you have to do is go back to the beginning and see everything in a new way. Peter Straub new-ways way It is as though some old part of yourself wakes up in you, terrified, useless in the life you have, its skills and habits destructive but intact, and what is left of the present you, the person you have become, wilts and shrivels in sadness or despair: the person you have become is only a thin shell over this other, more electric and endangered self. The strongest, the least digested parts of your experience can rise up and put you back where you were when they occurred; all the rest of you stands back and weeps. Peter Straub sadness skills self From a tale one expects a bit of wildness, of exaggeration and dramatic effect. The tale has no inherent concern with decorum, balance or harmony. ... A tale may not display a great deal of structural, psychological, or narrative sophistication, though it might possess all three, but it seldom takes its eye off its primary goal, the creation of a particular emotional state in its reader. Depending on the tale, that state could be wonder, amazement, shock, terror, anger, anxiety, melancholia, or the momentary frisson of horror. Peter Straub emotional eye goal I wish I'd known at the beginning that all I really had to do is trust myself. Everything would work out as if by magic once I actually leaned back into my imagination and just let it work, and not question it and not fret about it. Peter Straub magic work-out imagination What was the worst thing you've ever done? I won't tell you that, but I'll tell you the worst thing that ever happened to me...the most dreadful thing. Peter Straub happened worst done Sometimes it is right to fear the dark. Peter Straub dark sometimes Nobody is surprised that women writers accurately represent male characters over and over again, no doubt because everybody knows that women understand men much better than vice-versa. Peter Straub doubt character men I instantly chucked my academic ambitions and began writing fiction full-time. Peter Straub ambition writing fiction There were a lot of adventure books for boys, historical novels by Kenneth Roberts, and whatever mystery novels the alarmed librarian imagined might not corrupt an eager but innocent youth. Peter Straub adventure book travel When, in the third book, we do learn the identity of the Blue Rose murderer, the information comes in a muted, nearly off-hand manner, and the man has died long before. Peter Straub blue men book I generally wade in blind and trust to fate and instinct to see me through. Peter Straub wade intuition fate Wolves and those who see them are shot on sight. Peter Straub shots sight You'll never get anything done if you walk around with an unchipped heart. Peter Straub walks done heart In violence there is often the quality of yearning - the yearning for completion. For closure. For that which is absent and would if present bring to fulfillment. For the body without which the wing is a useless frozen ornament. ("A Short Guide To The City") Peter Straub quality cities wings Intellectual labor is a common technique for the avoidance of thinking. Peter Straub technique intellectual thinking God, in the orthodox view, causes famine, plague, and flood. Was God evil? Evil is a convenient fiction. Peter Straub views evil fiction
