Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Poppy Z. Brite
Age: 57
Born: 1967
Born: May 25
Author
Biographer
Novelist
Writer
New Orleans
Louisiana
Billy Martin
Book
Lived
Incomprehensible
Without
Certainly
Orleans
First
Honest
Draft
Writing
Anyone
Contained
Much
Write
Explaining
Years
Death
Hasn
Wanted
Several
Firsts
Absolutely
References

More quotes by Poppy Z. Brite

Image
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
Image
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
Image
Celebrities, even insignificant ones like me, are created to be abused by the Great Unwashed.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Mostly I enjoy the restaurants (my husband is a chef), though I wish we had a wider diversity of ethnic food.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
They discovered that even in the face of pain that seems unbearable, even in the face of pain that wrings the last drop of blood out of your heart and leaves its scrimshaw tracery on the inside of your skull, life goes on. And pain grows dull, and begins to fade
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
Ive tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
And I can't think of a reason I'd ever use a pseudonym, as I wouldn't want to publish something that I didn't like enough to put my name on it.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
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
Image
My dad told me that no one could ever make it as a writer, that my chances were equivalent to winning the lottery - which was good for me, because I like to have something to prove.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
Why bother? I was right all along: the second you make yourself vulnerable to someone, they start drawing blood.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
Some of the food in Liquor is food I've really eaten filtered through a veil of fiction.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
You hold onto what you have you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.
Poppy Z. Brite
Image
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
Image
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