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Never relinquish your terrors. That's when they catch you.

Poppy Z. Brite

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Poppy Z. Brite
Age: 57
Born: 1967
Born: May 25
Author
Biographer
Novelist
Writer
New Orleans
Louisiana
Billy Martin
Relinquish
Terrors
Catch
Terror
Never

More quotes by Poppy Z. Brite

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Why bother? I was right all along: the second you make yourself vulnerable to someone, they start drawing blood.
Poppy Z. Brite
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Ive tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.
Poppy Z. Brite
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In high school I was the dog, always, and I never have felt comfortable or right in my body, and part of my whole exhibitionist thing has probably been a way of testing to see whether or not I really was this repulsive creature that I felt like for so long.
Poppy Z. Brite
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In France, for instance, one magazine writer was convinced that On The Road had been a huge influence on Lost Souls and was crushed to learn that I hadn't read the one until after I'd written the other.
Poppy Z. Brite
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Mostly I enjoy the restaurants (my husband is a chef), though I wish we had a wider diversity of ethnic food.
Poppy Z. Brite
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Delete nothing. Move nothing. Change nothing. Learn everything.
Poppy Z. Brite
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When you have too much faith in something, it's bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry. In this way, all the world is a vampire.
Poppy Z. Brite
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There are people who must spend huge amounts of time composing these online diatribes against me, all about how disgusting and terrible I am and how no one should ever read my books, and it's not enough for them to hate me, they can't stand the fact that ANYONE likes me!
Poppy Z. Brite
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I certainly wanted to write a book that was honest about New Orleans without explaining it to death, so much so that the first draft contained references absolutely incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't lived here for several years.
Poppy Z. Brite
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I don't think it is possible to give tips for finding one's voice it's one of those things for which there aren't really any tricks or shortcuts, or even any advice that necessarily translates from writer to writer. All I can tell you is to write as much as possible.
Poppy Z. Brite
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I'm your nightmare. Did you think you were done with nightmares, now you've become one?
Poppy Z. Brite
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Sometimes we gotta be brave even when we're scared. We gotta not let being scared keep us from thinkin' straight. That's all brave is, boy, when you come right down to it, not lettin' the fear get you so turned around you start doin' stupid things, instead of what you know you ought to do.
Poppy Z. Brite
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I believe in whatever gets you throught the night. [...] Night is the hardest time to be alive. For me, anyway. It lasts so long, and four A.M.knows all my secrets.
Poppy Z. Brite
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You can only maintain an immensely gothic attitude for so long before either killing yourself or beginning to feel like a poser.
Poppy Z. Brite
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It was like discovering that your innermost fires and terrors, the things you believed no one else could fathom, were in fact the basis of a recognized philosophy. Some part of you felt intimately invaded, threatened some other part fell to its knees and sobbed in gratitude that it was no longer alone.
Poppy Z. Brite
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If you find yourself imitating another writer, that doesn't have to be a bad thing, especially if you are a young or a new writer. However, you should be conscious of exactly how you are imitating him - word choice, sentence structure, motifs? - and think about why you're doing it.
Poppy Z. Brite
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I've certainly learned a great deal from my husband, though, and could never have written a book like Liquor without him and the people he introduces me to and the stories he brings home.
Poppy Z. Brite
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Some of the food in Liquor is food I've really eaten filtered through a veil of fiction.
Poppy Z. Brite
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You hold onto what you have you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.
Poppy Z. Brite
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If you’re ever lucky enough to belong somewhere, if a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don't desert it just because it can kill you. There are things more valuable than life.
Poppy Z. Brite