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Peter Straub Quotes

Of course, the truth is that no one likes change. People in hell not only refuse to leave it, they invite you in, too. Even people who have blasted the other lives that touched their own blasted lives...

Peter Straub

Of course, the truth is that no one likes change. People in hell not only refuse to leave it, they invite you in, too. Even people who have blasted the other lives that touched their own blasted lives...

Tags: sandman, wisdom

What would be frightening about me jumping out of the bush wearing a pig mask is not the sudden surprise, not me, and not the pig mask, but that the ordinary world had split open for a moment to revea...

Peter Straub

What would be frightening about me jumping out of the bush wearing a pig mask is not the sudden surprise, not me, and not the pig mask, but that the ordinary world had split open for a moment to revea...

Tags: bushes, fear, night, pig mask

About Author
Peter Francis Straub (; March 2, 1943 – September 4, 2022) was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.
According to his New York Times obituary, Straub "brought a poet's sensibility to stories about ghosts, demons and other things that go bump in the night."

Every writer must acknowledge and be able to handle the unalterable fact that he has, in effect, given himself a life sentence in solitary confinement.

Peter Straub

Every writer must acknowledge and be able to handle the unalterable fact that he has, in effect, given himself a life sentence in solitary confinement.

Tags: life sentence, solitary, solitary confinement, solitude, writer, writing, writing life

It is as though some old part of yourself wakes up in you, terrified, useless in the life you have, its skills and habits destructive but intact, and what is left of the present you, the person you ha...

Peter Straub

It is as though some old part of yourself wakes up in you, terrified, useless in the life you have, its skills and habits destructive but intact, and what is left of the present you, the person you ha...

Tags: flashbacks, post traumatic stress disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, ptsd, terror

I'm being haunted, she blurted out. My dear, he cooed. Turn yourself into a tourist attraction and charge admission.

Peter Straub

I'm being haunted, she blurted out. My dear, he cooed. Turn yourself into a tourist attraction and charge admission.

Tags: horror, mysterious

Charlie Carpenter rang Lily Sheehan's bell, and when she opened the door he gave her a blue rose. This stands for dying, for death. My daddy met the man who grew them, and when the man tried to run aw...

Peter Straub

Charlie Carpenter rang Lily Sheehan's bell, and when she opened the door he gave her a blue rose. This stands for dying, for death. My daddy met the man who grew them, and when the man tried to run aw...

Nobody can protect anybody else from vileness. Or from pain. All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side.

Peter Straub

Nobody can protect anybody else from vileness. Or from pain. All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side.

Tags: determination, life, vileness

You know how when a woman gets angry, really angry, she can reach way back into herself and find rage enough to blow any man to pieces

Peter Straub

You know how when a woman gets angry, really angry, she can reach way back into herself and find rage enough to blow any man to pieces

I generally wade in blind and trust to fate and instinct to see me through.

Peter Straub

I generally wade in blind and trust to fate and instinct to see me through.

Tags: trust, blind, me, fate

But this story ends when you open the door. It doesn’t matter if you managed to guess which room is mine, which door I closed behind me. You put your hand on the door handle, you knock, it’s all over....

Peter Straub

But this story ends when you open the door. It doesn’t matter if you managed to guess which room is mine, which door I closed behind me. You put your hand on the door handle, you knock, it’s all over....

But you do not reject the supernatural out of hand,' Sears said. 'I don't know if I do or do not,' I said. 'Like most people.

Peter Straub

But you do not reject the supernatural out of hand,' Sears said. 'I don't know if I do or do not,' I said. 'Like most people.

I have been sometimes way too attracted by my own villains because in a way they seem to hold the secret to the heart of the narrative.

Peter Straub

I have been sometimes way too attracted by my own villains because in a way they seem to hold the secret to the heart of the narrative.

Tags: peter straub, villains, writing process

It struck me that his innate elegance, the product of his character & bearing much more than of the handsome suit and the suede shoes, had been paid for by the surviving of a thousand unimaginable dif...

Peter Straub

It struck me that his innate elegance, the product of his character & bearing much more than of the handsome suit and the suede shoes, had been paid for by the surviving of a thousand unimaginable dif...

When my childhood began coming back to me, I went off the rails for a bit. I became what you could charitably call colorful. After a year or so of disgrace, I remembered that I was thirty-odd years ol...

Peter Straub

When my childhood began coming back to me, I went off the rails for a bit. I became what you could charitably call colorful. After a year or so of disgrace, I remembered that I was thirty-odd years ol...

To do magic, to do great magic, he has to know himself as a piece of the universe.A piece of the universe?A little piece that has all the rest of it in it. Everything outside of him is also inside of...

Peter Straub

To do magic, to do great magic, he has to know himself as a piece of the universe.A piece of the universe?A little piece that has all the rest of it in it. Everything outside of him is also inside of...

Whatever his circumstances and surroundings, it was only a dead imagination that could call him a failure.

Peter Straub

Whatever his circumstances and surroundings, it was only a dead imagination that could call him a failure.

I do know that nobody can protect anybody else from vileness. Or from pain. All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side.

Peter Straub

I do know that nobody can protect anybody else from vileness. Or from pain. All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side.

A long time ago, when we all lived in the forest and none of us lived anywhere else,

Peter Straub

A long time ago, when we all lived in the forest and none of us lived anywhere else,

Because dead people are just like you and me, they still want things. They look at us all the time, and they miss being alive. We have taste and color and smell and feelings, and they don’t have any o...

Peter Straub

Because dead people are just like you and me, they still want things. They look at us all the time, and they miss being alive. We have taste and color and smell and feelings, and they don’t have any o...

The day was a long bolt of gray cloth; endless.

Peter Straub

The day was a long bolt of gray cloth; endless.