Bentley Little Quotes

Most people are middle class. Most people do wish their lives were better than they are. And I think by making my main characters ordinary, average guys, it helps readers identify with their problems. It also helps ground the supernatural events that follow in a recognizable reality and perhaps gives some of my wilder scenarios a little verisimilitude.

After the first draft, I sat back and thought to myself, "where did that come from?" That thought was quickly followed by "what is wrong with you?

I write what I want to write. Period. I don't write novels-for-hire using media tie-in characters, I don't write suspense novels or thrillers. I write horror. And if no one wants to buy my books, I'll just keep writing them until they do sell
and get a job at Taco Bell in the meantime.

His father's punishments were driven by disappointment, partly in the boy, mostly in himself.

Like most authors, I'm a raging egomaniac. I know that about myself. And I know that, if I had internet access, I would waste countless hours looking up things about myself, writing fake posts about how great I am and arguing with people who don't like my work. It saves me a lot of time and frustration to just stay out of the loop.

No one said a word; it was as if they were waiting for me to retract my question. Jan's hand found mine and held it.
"What the hell is this? A wake?" My grandpa came out of the house carrying a tray of buns.

The dead don't think of the living," Ethan said. "That part of their life is over.

There were shadows galore in the dim light, but there was one shadow that did not correspond to any object in the room. It lurked next to the fireplace, a formless, undulating darkness.

Anyone in horror's path is irrevocably altered.

There's always been a need for horror fiction, though
ghost stories have been a staple of every human society since the beginning of recorded literature
and while commercially the field may have its ups and downs, it will never go away. Hell, look at the Bible: gods, devils, ghosts, witches, giants, resurrections. That's one big horror story. And it's the most popular book on the planet.

They lived in a Wikipedia world, where knowledge was no longer required and only the ability to access it mattered.

On the Today show, there was a story about a new poll that had been conducted regarding religious beliefs. A majority of Americans reported that they believed in angels, and a significant number thought they were personally protected by a guardian angel. He changed the channel to CNN, where they were covering a shooting at a North Carolina high school, a subject more comfortingly normal.

A light wind blew through here that carried with it scents of sadness and loss, not recognizable odors but smells that corresponded to nothing, chimerical fragrances able to evoke melancholic memories.

Names have power. In certain cultures, just speaking a man's name gives you mastery over him.

He seemed born to find flaws in everything, a task at which he excelled and in which he seemed to delight.

Life is short. Eternity is long.

The Revelation was my master's project, and after I finished it, I thought I'd send it off to a publisher and within a year or so be a rich and famous writer. Two years later I finally sold it. For a whopping $4,000. A year after that, it finally came out. Which explains why there are all those terrible jobs on my resume!

I think the internet is a great marketing tool
but marketing is not my job. I'm a writer. My job is to write novels.

An enigma? That's not a bad persona to have. I should probably shut up and let the mystery continue! It's good for my career.

Her last call, at midnight, had been the worst. "I'll pull your cock out of your asshole," she'd said, and for some reason her voice at that moment had reminded him of his mother's.

Murder is an inherently evil act, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how convincing the rationalizations.

Her only comfort was to curse each searing day with a creative lexicon she didn't know she possessed.

Real life was messier than fiction, and in it you didn't always have time to do or say the right things.

In real life, good people die all the time and a**holes can live long and happy lives. It's a crapshoot.

This can't be constitutional," he said. "This is America, damn it. We still have freedom of speech here.

I think readers appreciate those of us who stay in the trenches and fight the good fight even when times get tough. I know that I, personally, lost respect for writers who, when there was a downturn in the market, started shouting from the rooftops that they wrote thrillers and suspense novels rather than horror. As far as I'm concerned, those wussboys should sever all ties with the horror community if that's the way they feel and get out of the way so real horror writers can do their work.

Horror writers can write about everything in the real world that a mainstream novelist can
plus the supernatural, which is the most fertile field for metaphor imaginable.

New Year's has never been a real holiday to me anyway. There's no gifts, no feast, just ... bad TV.

He could wait, because hatred is patient.

I always thought the appeal for vampires are the same as religion, the desire to avoid death and live forever.

Real life ... it was an ambiguous world, where actions sometimes had no meaning, where chaos reigned and no one was allowed to see the big picture, only their small portion of it.

Julian tried to keep a pleasant smile on his face, though already it felt strained. He was uncomfortable with people who used the word blessed as a part of their everyday speech. The implication was that God was intervening in the minutiae of their lives, hanging around and helping them with their jobs or children or household chores as though He had nothing better to do.
Maybe it was true, Julian thought wryly. Maybe that was why there were wars and murders and earthquakes and hurricanes. God was too busy helping real estate agents find new listings to deal with those other issues.