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

More quotes by Poppy Z. Brite

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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
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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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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
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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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The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.
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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Delete nothing. Move nothing. Change nothing. Learn everything.
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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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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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
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Celebrities, even insignificant ones like me, are created to be abused by the Great Unwashed.
Poppy Z. Brite
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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
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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 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 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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Ive tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.
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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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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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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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