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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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I Don't Think 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.

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All At Once It Hit Him: This Was Power Too, Just As Surely As Smashing Your Fist Into Someone’s Face, Just As Surely As Putting A Hammer Through Someone’s Skull. The Power To Make Another Person Crazy With Pleasure Instead Of Fear And Pain, To Have Every Cell In Another Person’s Body At Your Thrall.

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.

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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.

Never Relinquish Your Terrors. That's When They Catch You.

You Can Only Maintain An Immensely Gothic Attitude For So Long Before Either Killing Yourself Or Beginning To Feel Like A Poser.

The Night Is The Hardest Time To Be Alive And 4am Knows All My Secrets.

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.

New Orleans Cuisine Is Creole Rather Than Cajun.

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Delete Nothing. Move Nothing. Change Nothing. Learn Everything.

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!

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.

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

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Some Nights Are Made For Torture, Or Reflection, Or The Savoring Of Loneliness.

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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.

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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.

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