Edward Lee QUOTES

1 " Around 1980, I’d been writing short stories, all to no success; so I wrote a fan letter to Stephen King and asked “How long should it take an aspiring writer to either get published or know when to give up?” Lo and behold, King wrote back to me in long hand with blue flair pen on 14-inch paper, purveying a very nice, helpful note; in it he said my letter proved a “command of the language,” that I should never give up, and that it would take years to succeed, not months. “That’s cold comfort but it’s the truth.” This was the ultimate encouragement for a young writer to be who didn’t know shit about the market. I took Mr. King’s advice and actually sold my first novel little more than a year later. I’ll always be copiously grateful for this advice, and it’s the same advice I give aspiring writers now (along with the story of King’s reply!). "

― Edward Lee

2 " On the coldest day of winter, I wouldn't give you the steam off my shit "

― Edward Lee , City Infernal (City Infernal, #1)

3 " When we take life for granted, we’re assholes. Every day we wake up and the world’s still turning- that’s a great day. "

― Edward Lee , Incubi

4 " he looked like something more than human, or something less. "

― Edward Lee , Goon

5 " God’s already pissed off. He has been for five thousand years, and He’s sick to the nucleus of His soul. He’s not going to show Himself—you’re not worth His time. God’s gone. He’s fuckin’ busy, man. "

― Edward Lee , Teratologist

6 " Belief is a powerful thing. It shapes the past as well as the future. Once a thing is done and thousands of years have passed, who is to say the manner in which it came to pass? History is what we believe it to be just as God and heaven are what you believe them to be, well, to a point. God does have a definite nature. It's his appearance that changes. Your faith shapes it. There are many different heavens just as there are many different hells and many different types of angels. "

― Edward Lee

7 " Boy, are you fuckin' those worms again? "

― Edward Lee , Family Tradition

8 " ONLY TODAY

Yesterday
can no longer
be touched.
Tomorrow
is out of your reach.

So live today,
only today. "

― Edward Lee

9 " THIS

This is a moment
to remember, this,
our breaths still heavy,
the smell of summer gentle
through the window,
the sound of the world,
not even a distraction,

the words ‘I love you’
unneeded. "

― Edward Lee

10 " snick! snick! snick! “Lordy, this is fun!” After a lot more snickin’, all them fingers’n toes’d been clipped right off, an’ Dicky could see ’em sittin’ there on the ground. Weren’t much blood, though, on account’a how tight Balls’d tied the wrists’n ankles. “Lookit! The big dumb cracker’s passin’ out. "

― Edward Lee , The Bighead

11 " At any rate, it was this same less-than-gainly driver who made an announcement to the passengers. “Wal haow yew like thet?” rang his dark New England accent. “Engine problems, folks. Saounds like the manifold.” (I hadn’t a clue as to what a manifold "

― Edward Lee , Pages Torn from a Travel Journal

12 " Sissy looked at the shot glass full of pig semen and threw it back neat. "

― Edward Lee , The House

13 " Here, though, the police do not exist to protect and serve. They exist to maintain terror through unimaginable atrocity. "

― Edward Lee , City Infernal (City Infernal, #1)

14 " The sign at the end of the parking lot burned GEIN’S MOTEL in hot blue neon. He peered at the sign strangely, as if someone might be hiding behind it. "

― Edward Lee , Ghouls

15 " Lady, I “cream-pied” a cadaver last night. Does that meet your definition of naughty? "

― Edward Lee , White Trash Gothic

16 " His penis swelled in his pants to the extent that it felt like a hamster that had died and entered rigor mortis. "

― Edward Lee , The Minotauress

17 " Morris chopped off the girl's hand with a hatchet then guttered laughter. The poor mulato wailed, her stump pumping.
"What'choo do that for!" Cutton bellowed. He hadn't even gotten his trousers off before Morris had pulled this move. "

― Edward Lee , The Black Train

18 " Think of these as wedding bands, my love," the Grand Duke amusedly remarked. "By the powers invested in me, I now pronounce us husband and wife, through lust and hatred, through indulgence and abuse-and you can rest assured, death will never do us apart. "

― Edward Lee

19 " Perversity, sadism, sexual aberration, etc., are parts of the nomenclature of the human spirit—just like altruism, fellowship, love, and all that. No, I’m not saying it’s cool to be perverse, sadistic, and sexually aberrant, but I think it’s honest to be curious about the very worst that humanity has to offer, and the very worst manner in which mankind has presented itself. Not only is it honest, I dare say it’s healthy, "

― Edward Lee , The Ushers

20 " Sartre, Kierkegaard, Heidegger: cool guys, smart, lotta meat between the ears on those fellas, and certainly trying to define who we are in the world or the universe is a noble undertaking. But isn’t it somewhat as legitimate to try to define the reason why people do the horrible things they do? It’s a fascinating query for me. It’s a kick. Hence, my plight. I write horror. "

― Edward Lee , The Ushers

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