People will complain that they don't want to wait around for lightning to strike, but why not? If you invest yourself in chance, the potential for disappointment is pretty low. John Darnielle More Quotes by John Darnielle More Quotes From John Darnielle For me, moving is always a big opportunity. Its just a enough of a shift in outlook that every time I move, it seems to open something up. John Darnielle enough opportunity moving May we all emerge from winter with our strength renewed and any unwanted pieces left under the ice. John Darnielle ice pieces winter Adulthood is interesting to adults. But I would never want to write about stuff I dont feel everybody can connect to. John Darnielle adults writing interesting My family, before the divorce, moved several times, and after that we moved a whole bunch more times, and so I don't have an anchor to a single place. Probably as a result of that, I'm a little more attenuated to when people do feel close identification to place, whether they say it out aloud or not. I think that there's a sort of local patriotism that is deeper than national patriotism. John Darnielle divorce anchors thinking People always talk about good time rock and roll, Chuck Berry or whatever, like this liberating force for feeling good. But what I need in my life is to be liberated into feeling bad. Not sad. I have plenty of sad. What I need is a place where I can spray anger in sparks like a gnarled piece of electrical cable. Just be mad at stuff and soak in the helplessness. John Darnielle rock-and-roll rocks people When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you. John Darnielle forgiving persons dream I think The Sunset Tree is really the album on which I really learned to trust other musicians, which is so important. John Darnielle sunset tree thinking When I was a kid, I was a big science fiction fan, but current horror books were harder to get your hands on. John Darnielle kids book hands Our [former] governor [Pat McCrory] was supposed to be a moderate, but he found himself beholden to people who have much more draconian ideas. I think he assumed this stuff flew under the radar. John Darnielle people ideas thinking Conservative forces in the South have a lot of power - almost dynastic - dating back many years. John Darnielle dating conservative years [Robert] Aikman would write horror stories that weren't gore, they weren't slashers, and they weren't monster stories either. He called them ghost stories. The main thing about them was the vibe. It was really disquieting. He wanted to sketch the scene so that you could see it and know the characters and get a feel for the motion - and then ask yourself why and not get a final answer. Leave something that itches. I loved that! John Darnielle horror-stories writing character It's easy to follow national politics and weigh in on social media, but if I'm tweeting stuff about Chatham County, no one cares. John Darnielle media care stuff I suspect by the time the Beatles were writing the White Album, they didn't go, "'I Wanna Hold Your Hand!' I wanna play that!" It's like if somebody asked you to put on the clothes you wore in high school. Well, no. No! John Darnielle writing hands school This is the funny thing about me. People think John just comes up with all the ideas. I'm honored. People think I have a big old brain, but actually I am the sum of the people I work with. John Darnielle funny-things ideas thinking I worked the AV counter at the Roland Heights public library in the '80s. My best story from the library was the time a couple asked for a recommendation, and I recommended Raising Arizona and they absolutely hated it. They came back hungry for blood. I was on my lunch break and my boss came out and said, "Hey kid, you need to come talk to these people. They totally hate Arizona." And he said, "Arizona's a dog; nobody gets that movie." John Darnielle couple hate dog What's scary is the unknown, the stuff you can't put your finger on. John Darnielle fingers scary stuff The possibility of disaster remains horrific to me. Like when you know everything's about to go wrong in a way that's not controllable or knowable. John Darnielle disaster possibility way [Dennis] Etchison would write stories that were just punch lines at the end. You wouldn't realize something horrific was happening until the last paragraph. John Darnielle lasts stories writing There are real teachers out there; I don't pretend to have their mantle. John Darnielle real teacher I like a lot of hardcore, but it's just a genre about which I don't have much to say. It's kind of a thing where, unless you're active in the hardcore community, what could you have to say of value about it? It resists criticism because it's not just a style but an entrance into several different worlds of ideas- political, philosophical, societal. The music is really only part of the whole scene. In that sense, the music doesn't change much because it shouldn't: It needs to be there as a signal that you're entering into a certain discursive mode, maybe. John Darnielle philosophical political community
