Brian McNaughton Quotes

Brian McNaughton was an American writer of horror and fantasy fiction who mixed sex, satire and black humour. He also wrote thrillers. Wikipedia  

✵ 23. September 1935 – 13. May 2004
Brian McNaughton: 6   quotes 0   likes

Famous Brian McNaughton Quotes

“I believe that we are soft creatures in a world with some very hard edges. It's remarkable that we survive at all, much less do high deeds or write great music.”

"An Interview with World Fantasy Award Finalist Brian Mcnaughton" by Jeff VanderMeer, in The Ministry of Whimsy (1998) http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS11/ns11nf1.htm
Context: I believe that we are soft creatures in a world with some very hard edges. It's remarkable that we survive at all, much less do high deeds or write great music. I think … tension … is a condition of our existence, and I do my best to depict it.

“They see their fellows as impediments to feeding, to be mauled and shrieked at when the mourners go home.”

"Meryphillia"
The Throne of Bones (1997)
Context: For all their laughter, ghouls are a dull lot. Hunger is the fire in which they burn, and it burns hotter than the hunger for power over men or for knowledge of the gods in a crazed mortal. It vaporizes delicacy and leaves behind only a slag of anger and lust. They see their fellows as impediments to feeding, to be mauled and shrieked at when the mourners go home. They are seldom alone, not through love of one another's company, but because a lone ghoul is suspected of stealing food. Their copulation is so hasty that distinctions of sex and identity are often ignored.

“For all their laughter, ghouls are a dull lot.”

"Meryphillia"
The Throne of Bones (1997)
Context: For all their laughter, ghouls are a dull lot. Hunger is the fire in which they burn, and it burns hotter than the hunger for power over men or for knowledge of the gods in a crazed mortal. It vaporizes delicacy and leaves behind only a slag of anger and lust. They see their fellows as impediments to feeding, to be mauled and shrieked at when the mourners go home. They are seldom alone, not through love of one another's company, but because a lone ghoul is suspected of stealing food. Their copulation is so hasty that distinctions of sex and identity are often ignored.

“Goul or ghul, in Arabic, signifies any terrifying object which deprives people of the use of their senses; hence it became the appellative of that species of monster which was supposed to haunt forests, cemeteries, and other lonely places, and believed not only to tear in pieces the living, but to dig up and devour the dead.”

Attributed to McNaughton online, this actually is a quote from an English edition of The History of the Caliph Vathek (1786) by William Thomas Beckford, as translated by Samuel Henley.
Misattributed

“Vampires, like virgins or priests, are things that women believe in. We must never fail to humor them in such matters.”

"Child of the Night" in 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories (1995) edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, and Martin H. Greenberg

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