“The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.”
―
Poppy Z. Brite
“Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.” ― Poppy Z.Brite
“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.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“There were books about how to be gay; he'd seen them in stores and libraries. Some of them even had diagrams. But there weren't any diagrams about how to fall in love with your best friend and not fuck everything up.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, The Value of X
“He has 'le coeur comme un artichaud'. Eddy fumbled for her high school French. 'A heart like an artichoke?' 'Oui. He has a leaf for everyone, but makes a meal for no one.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“You hold onto what you have; you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Wormwood
“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.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse
“If you want something, you don't wait for the world to deal it out for you. You take it.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“Why bother? I was right all along: the second you make yourself vulnerable to someone, they start drawing blood.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“When you have too much faith in something, it's bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry. In this way, all the world is a vampire.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“The sky is purple, the flare of a match behind a cupped hand is gold; the liquor is green, bright green, made from a thousand herbs, made from altars. Those who know enough to drink Chartreuse at Mardi Gras are lucky, because the distilled essence of the town burns in their bellies. Chartreuse glows in the dark, and if you drink enough of it, your eyes will turn bright green.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“Delete nothing. Move nothing. Change nothing. Learn everything.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“I'm your nightmare. Did you think you were done with nightmares, now you've become one?” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse
“Maybe they did what they had to do to live, and tried to get a little love and have a little fun before the darkness took them.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“Stare at him," said Ghost. "They won't bite you if you keep staring at them."Steve backed away. "They bite?"Not really. They hiss at you, mostly. The only time geese are ever dangerous is when you happen to be standing on the edge of a cliff. I heard about a guy that almost got killed that way."By geese?"Yeah, there was a whole flock of them coming after him. All hissing and cackling and stabbing at his ankles with their big ol' beaks. He didn't know you had to stare them right in the eye, and he panicked. They backed him right over a fifty-foot cliff."So how come he didn't die?"This guy had wings," said Ghost. "He flew away.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“The last dying days of summer, fall coming on fast. A cold night, the first of the season, a change from the usual bland Maryland climate. Cold, thought the boy; his mind felt numb. The trees he could see through his bedroom window were tall charcoal sticks, shivering, afraid of the wind or only trying to stand against it. Every tree was alone out there. The animals were alone, each in its hole, in its thin fur, and anything that got hit on the road tonight would die alone. Before morning, he thought, its blood would freeze in the cracks of the asphalt.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“I press my hands against my chest, wishing I could somehow be even closer to him. I hate skin; I hate bones and bodies. I want to curl up inside of him and be carried there forever.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse
“If you’re ever lucky enough to belong somewhere, if a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don't desert it just because it can kill you. There are things more valuable than life.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“At some point you have to start letting people save their own life.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Stay Awake
“Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.” ― Poppy Z.Brite
“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.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“There were books about how to be gay; he'd seen them in stores and libraries. Some of them even had diagrams. But there weren't any diagrams about how to fall in love with your best friend and not fuck everything up.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, The Value of X
“He has 'le coeur comme un artichaud'. Eddy fumbled for her high school French. 'A heart like an artichoke?' 'Oui. He has a leaf for everyone, but makes a meal for no one.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“You hold onto what you have; you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Wormwood
“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.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse
“If you want something, you don't wait for the world to deal it out for you. You take it.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“Why bother? I was right all along: the second you make yourself vulnerable to someone, they start drawing blood.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“When you have too much faith in something, it's bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry. In this way, all the world is a vampire.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“The sky is purple, the flare of a match behind a cupped hand is gold; the liquor is green, bright green, made from a thousand herbs, made from altars. Those who know enough to drink Chartreuse at Mardi Gras are lucky, because the distilled essence of the town burns in their bellies. Chartreuse glows in the dark, and if you drink enough of it, your eyes will turn bright green.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“Delete nothing. Move nothing. Change nothing. Learn everything.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“I'm your nightmare. Did you think you were done with nightmares, now you've become one?” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse
“Maybe they did what they had to do to live, and tried to get a little love and have a little fun before the darkness took them.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“Stare at him," said Ghost. "They won't bite you if you keep staring at them."Steve backed away. "They bite?"Not really. They hiss at you, mostly. The only time geese are ever dangerous is when you happen to be standing on the edge of a cliff. I heard about a guy that almost got killed that way."By geese?"Yeah, there was a whole flock of them coming after him. All hissing and cackling and stabbing at his ankles with their big ol' beaks. He didn't know you had to stare them right in the eye, and he panicked. They backed him right over a fifty-foot cliff."So how come he didn't die?"This guy had wings," said Ghost. "He flew away.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls
“The last dying days of summer, fall coming on fast. A cold night, the first of the season, a change from the usual bland Maryland climate. Cold, thought the boy; his mind felt numb. The trees he could see through his bedroom window were tall charcoal sticks, shivering, afraid of the wind or only trying to stand against it. Every tree was alone out there. The animals were alone, each in its hole, in its thin fur, and anything that got hit on the road tonight would die alone. Before morning, he thought, its blood would freeze in the cracks of the asphalt.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“I press my hands against my chest, wishing I could somehow be even closer to him. I hate skin; I hate bones and bodies. I want to curl up inside of him and be carried there forever.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse
“If you’re ever lucky enough to belong somewhere, if a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don't desert it just because it can kill you. There are things more valuable than life.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
“At some point you have to start letting people save their own life.” ― Poppy Z. Brite, Stay Awake
