Horror Quotes

“Fred said, “Man, I think he’s gonna make a fuckin’ suit of human skin, using the best parts from each of us.”
“Holy crap,” said John. “He’ll be gorgeous.”
― David Wong, John Dies at the End

“Terror is the desire to save your own ass, but horror is rooted in sympathy.”
― Joe Hill

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
― Stanley Kubrick

“Kill you all!" The clown was laughing and screaming. "Try to stop me and I'll kill you all! Drive you crazy and then kill you all! You can't stop me!”
― Stephen King, It

“That's because only a real artist knows the actual anatomy of the terrible or the physiology of fear - the exact sort of lines and proportions that connect up with latent instincts or hereditary memories of fright, and the proper colour contrasts and lighting effects to stir the dormant sense of strangeness.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Pickman's Model

“I would like [my readers] to better understand human beings and human life as a result of having read [my] stories. I'd like them to feel that this was an experience that made things better for them and an experience that gave them hope. I think that the kind of things that we talk about at this conference -- fantasy very much so, science fiction, and even horror -- the message that we're sending is the reverse of the message sent by what is called "realistic fiction." (I happen to think that realistic fiction is not, in fact, realistic, but that's a side issue.) And what we are saying is that it doesn't have to be like this: things can be different. Our society can be changed. Maybe it's worse, maybe it's better. Maybe it's a higher civilization, maybe it's a barbaric civilization. But it doesn't have to be the way it is now. Things can change. And we're also saying things can change for you in your life. Look at the difference between Severian the apprentice and Severian the Autarch [in The Book of the New Sun], for example. The difference beteween Silk as an augur and Silk as calde [in The Book of the Long Sun]. You see?

We don't always have to be this. There can be something else. We can stop doing the thing that we're doing. Moms Mabley had a great line in some movie or other -- she said, "You keep on doing what you been doing and you're gonna keep on gettin' what you been gettin'." And we don't have to keep on doing what we've been doing. We can do something else if we don't like what we're gettin'. I think a lot of the purpose of fiction ought to be to tell people that.”
― Gene Wolfe

“One’s options in this world are as vast as the horizon, which is technically a circle and thus infinitely broad. Yet we must choose each step we take with utmost caution, for the footprints we leave behind are as important as the path we will follow. They’re part of the same journey — our story.”
― Lori R. Lopez, Dance of the Chupacabras

“The one test of the really weird (story) is simply this--whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

“There are black zones of shadow close to our daily paths, and now and then some evil soul breaks a passage through. When that happens, the man who knows must strike before reckoning the consequences.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep

“Humans, nothing more than food…for us cockroaches.”
― P.D. Alleva, The Rose Vol. 1

“When Stephen King elaborated on his inspirations for his novel "Carrie" he draws from a time when he was a young man, and describes his impression when he came upon a statue of Christ on the cross, hanging there in misery, and he thought "If THAT guy ever came back, he probably wouldn't be in a saving mood."”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Can you imagine life without the horror genre? There would be no monsters. Only a**holes.”
― Michael A. Arnzen

“A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no words written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design. And by such means, with such care and skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction. The idea of the tale has been presented unblemished because undisturbed: and this is an end unattainable by the novel. Undue brevity is just as exceptionable here as in the poem; but undue length is yet more to be avoided.”
― Edgar Allan Poe

“This isn’t some sick sci-fi novel.”
― P.D. Alleva, The Rose Vol. 1

“Te ríes cuando deberías horrorizarte. Te enamoras de mí cuando más bien tendrías que esquivarme.”
― Xavier Velasco, Diablo Guardián

“I would die rather than live without you. I would die the same way he died. I can't bear you to look at me the way you did. I cannot bear it if you do not love me!" -Claudia.”
― Anne Rice

“When battling Alien Vampires one thing is certain…Get Ready To Bleed!”
― P.D. Alleva, The Rose Vol. 1

“Hexen stehen immer zwischen Birken”
― Walter Moers

“Wha...what are you smiling for...? If I'd swallowed that needle, I'd have died! It's not like putting tabasco in ohagi!!!”
― Ryukishi07, Higurashi When They Cry: Curse Killing Arc, Vol. 2

“Allow the power to flow through you. Don’t try to capture it. You wish only to borrow it.”
― G.G. Collins, Reluctant Medium

“I didn't want to be the woman who gave herself over willingly to the first man to notice her. I didn't want to be the stupid girl in every novel who loved without question and entered relationships that didn't make sense.”
― Destinee Hardwick, Wishing on Raining Stars

“I said, 'If other beings besides us exist on Earth, why didn't we meet them a long time ago?”
― Guy de Maupassant, Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques

“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, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps

“I think that true horror is accomplished by slowly getting into your brain. The old way is much more scary.”
― Sergio Aragones

“Alone,” Aiden said behind her.
She turned, puzzled. “I beg your pardon?”
He paused. His eyes settled on her lips. “You asked how I slept at night.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Double Cross

“There will never be slaves in Britain,' Godalming continued, 'but those who stay warm will naturally serve us, as the excellent Bessie has just served me. Have a care, lest you wind up the equivalent of some damned regimental water-bearer.'

In India, I knew a water-bearer who was a better man than most.”
― Kim Newman, Anno Dracula

“Your cunning has proved to be that of Cain. I grant you power over the Hellmouth. May Samael take my revenge." The thing said with a bitter look and a voice that seemed to be many.”
― Georgina Morales, Perpetual Night

“I sleep with the lights on now. Not because I’m afraid of the dark, but because I like to keep the night as far away as I can.”
― Keith Kekic, Nightwalkers

“Shit rolls downhill. Bureaucracy rolls faster.”
― David Wellington

“Keiichi-kun. I found you.”
― Ryukishi07, Higurashi When They Cry: Curse Killing Arc, Vol. 2