Ramsey Campbell Quotes

Unlike the rest he had seen of the bungalow, the hall beyond the door was dark. He could see the glimmer of three doors and several framed photographs lined up along the walls. The sound of flies was louder, though they didn't seem to be in the hall itself. Now that he was closer they sounded even more like someone groaning feebly, and the rotten smell was stronger too. ~ Ramsey Campbell

Smile while you can,' Hettie Close had scrawled in ink almost as faded as the print above it. 'Smile like the skull you'll be, you fool, before you're worse than bones. ~ Ramsey Campbell

As soon as Todd drove off the motorway it vanished from the mirror, and so did the sun across the moor. ~ Ramsey Campbell

The crying wailed, somewhere beneath the planks. Several sweeps of the light showed that the cellar was otherwise deserted. Though the face mouthed behind him, he ventured down. For God's sake, get it over with; he knew he would never dare return. ~ Ramsey Campbell

She walked Toby to Victoria Station and left him at the barrier. On her way into the underground she thought he'd followed her, but there was nobody to be seen behind her on the escalator that sailed downwards with a faint inconsolable squeal. She sat on a bench on the empty platform, the breaths of oncoming trains stirring the hairs on the back of her neck. She leafed through Graham's notebook, but couldn't concentrate; she found she had to keep glancing along the platform towards the tunnel. Some fault in the mechanism made the train doors reopen after she boarded, as if someone had leapt on at the last moment. The galloping rush of the wheels made her think of a hunt in the dark. ~ Ramsey Campbell

Perhaps the woman was waiting beneath the lamps for cats to drop from the trees, like fruit. ~ Ramsey Campbell

Leaves that rustled, twigs that scraped and rattled. But the thin shapes weren't falling, they were scurrying head first down the tree-trunks at a speed that seemed to leave time behind. Some of them had no shape they could have lived with, and some might never have had any skin. She saw their shriveled eyes glimmer eagerly and their toothless mouths gape with an identical infantile hunger. Their combined weight bowed the lowest branches while they extended arms like withered sticks to snatch the child. ("With The Angels") ~ Ramsey Campbell

He slammed the door and ran blindly down the corridor, grabbing at handles. What exactly had he seen? They had been eating with their bare hands, but somehow the only thought he could hold on to was a kind of sickened gratitude that he had been unable to see their faces. ~ Ramsey Campbell

He hurried back. Walls seemed to shift and advance. Right here, it must be. Wasn't this passage too short? No, it wasn't a wall that blocked his way, only fog. The fog retreated before him - then at once yielded up a wall. Staggering crimson letters caught in the web of graffiti spelled KILLER. ~ Ramsey Campbell

Thomas Ligotti is an absolute master of supernatural horror and weird fiction, and a true original. He pursues his unique vision with admirable honesty and rigorousness and conveys it in prose as powerfully evocative as any writer in the field. I'd say he might just be a genius. ~ Ramsey Campbell

One way to avoid what has already been done is to be true to yourself. ~ Ramsey Campbell

Darkness blinded him. It was heavy on him, and moved. It was more than darkness: it was flesh". ~ Ramsey Campbell

But there's also the fact that in my experience most of my readers are first and foremost plain old-fashioned readers. Good readers. They're not looking for cozy brand-name output and that means I don't have to give it to 'em. They're not lazy and have little patience with pre-fab beach-bag books or Oprah's opine du jour. They're questers.
They know that every now and then you're gonna get lucky and pure gold like King and Straub's Black House will simply drop into your lap at the local supermarket but after that, if your bent is horror and suspense fiction, you're gonna have to get your hands dirty and root around for more. Find a Ramsey Campbell or an Edward Lee. They expect diversity and search it out. They want what all good readers want - to be taken somewhere in a book or a story that's really worth visiting for a while. Maybe even worth thinking about after.
If that place happens to scare the hell out of you all the better. ~ Jack Ketchum

You must be a blast on long car rides."
"Oh, I am. You haven't experienced fun until you try to fuck in the front seat of a Civic. ~ Nenia Campbell

Fast and stupid is still stupid. It just gets you to stupid a lot quicker than humans could on their own. Which, I admit, is an accomplishment," she added, "because we're pretty damn good at stupid. ~ Jack Campbell

The most starstruck I've been is when I met Sol Campbell when he was a Tottenham Hotspur player. I don't get starstruck by actors I work with, because you have some sort of relationship with them. Like, I worked with Tom Cruise [on Interview With The Vampire], so if I saw him again I'd speak to him as an actor. Although he might not be interested in talking to me ... ~ Roger Lloyd-Pack

I don't want to be so analytical of my own life, because if I start to be analytical of my own life, maybe I'll choose not to believe anything that's going on. But, the fact of the matter is, I've experienced both sides of it now. Sides where you have a great time with people on set, and then you do just step away. And it's not malicious. It's just that people go back and live their lives and do whatever. ~ Jamie Campbell Bower

What you and I had was the most intense thing I've ever felt, but if it's over for you, just kick me hard enough so I'll remember the pain and stay out of your way. ~ Steph Campbell

An Ax was raised into the smoke filled sky while the surrounding soldiers pinned him down and stood on his hands. It took more than a dozen blows to sever each arm just below the elbows. The strangest sensation, he said, was that one minute he could feel his knuckles being ground into the asphalt by the soldier's boot and in the next he watched the man kick his arm away and he felt nothing. ~ Greg Campbell

A temple is a landscape of the soul. ~ Joseph Campbell

No, I mean, why are the Innaki here, visiting Earth?"
Its eyes narrowed, and I sensed it was reluctant to answer. "We are improving the human gene code."
"Why?"
"The human creature is sub-standard, stupid and prone to disease. We are working to advance its makeup."
How philanthropic of them, I thought wryly. ~ Tracey Lee Campbell

Because whether we're in the middle of the desert or in the heart of a city, or the top of a mountain or on an underground train: having good stories to keep us company means the whole world. ~ Jen Campbell

If you want to know what a given society believes in, look at what its largest buildings are devoted to. ~ Joseph Campbell

To be a writer is to embrace rejection as a way of life. ~ Dana Stabenow

CUSTOMER: I read a book in the sixties. I don't remember the author, or the title. But it was green, and it made me laugh. Do you know which one I mean? ~ Jen Campbell

Horror I appreciate is one of the few genres that can wind the audience up and make them pay attention. I kind of like that. It's one of the few genres that can be very manipulative. ~ Bruce Campbell

There's a great place to go when you're broke
to work! ~ Dave Ramsey

You have to learn to recognize your own depths. ~ Joseph Campbell

The goal is to move the thinking that we do every day to the feeling that we often ignore and don't pay attention to. ~ Kim Ha Campbell

IT IS EASY TO LOVE THAT WHICH YOU TAKE THE TIME TO LOOK ~ Campbell

You think I'm gorgeous?"
"When I look at you, all I can think about are the the different ways I'd like to fuck you."
"So that's a yes then?" she said shyly.
"No, darlin. It's an I-hope-you-weren't-planning-on-sleeping-alone-tonight. ~ Nenia Campbell

I love you , I love you, I love you, I will say it a million more times if I have to. ~ Brody Campbell

For Beauty's tears are lovelier than her smile. ~ Thomas Campbell

Letting go is never easy. Especially when you can't see where you're going to land. But I've learned that sometimes, you just have to throw your weight behind the change. Take the chance that you may fall. ~ Steph Campbell

Yet the very phrase "pro-life" has too often meant "harsh and exclusionary," and associating myself with such a movement made me judgmental and giving a witness that was contrary to the Gospel call. ~ Simone Campbell

I'm happy with the way I did my career, I wouldn't change it in a million years. I got to do the real grafting and learning from real models when I was younger - how to open up a jacket, walk, and such. ~ Naomi Campbell

I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. ~ Joseph Campbell

I want to make music that I know that ten years from now, you can put it on and say "This is a great record". ~ Warryn Campbell

Yes, I did and a lot of my friends who are in the same program as I were very much supportive, and the most important thing they said to me is do not let this interfere with what you have to do in taking car of yourself. That was the most important thing. ~ Naomi Campbell

I've never read Joseph Campbell, and I don't know all that much about story archetypes. ~ Christopher Nolan

You mean you don't want to come in and hold my hand while I piss? ~ Nenia Campbell

We need to make nutrition the central element of our health-care system. Furthermore, ~ T. Colin Campbell

A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you anyhow. Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life. I think ritual is terribly important. ~ Joseph Campbell

So content people may not have the best of everything, but they make the best of everything. That is who you want your children to be. ~ Dave Ramsey

To conquer nature is, in effect, to remove all natural barriers and human norms and to substitute artificial, fabricated equivalents for natural processes. ~ Alex Campbell

The word reality scared me. I just looked at reality as everybody follows me around with a camera, and I'm not that kind of person. I fought for my privacy in England. And I didn't see another way it could be done. ~ Naomi Campbell

It's like an itch, isn't it? You can feel it in your throat. You want to scream for me. ~ Nenia Campbell

The sensors have many potential practical uses - in Government buildings, train carriages, cargo containers, on a soldier's lapel - and are a thousand times cheaper than current sensors that are used for the same purpose. ~ Anne Campbell

Chief Seattle, of the Indians that inhabited the Seattle area, wrote a wonderful paper that has to do with putting oneself in tune with the universe. He said ~ Joseph Campbell

Great Brahma from his mystic heaven groans, And all his priesthood moans. ~ Joseph Campbell

Careful," he said. "If you keep blushing like that I may do more than just draw you. ~ Nenia Campbell

Where I live you're not supposed to shoot a firearm within a quarter mile of a dwelling. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell