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Clive Barker Quotes
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Clive Barker is an English writer, film director, and visual artist. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works, and his fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser and Candyman series. He was the Executive Producer of the film Gods and Monsters.

Barker's paintings and illustrations have been featured in galleries in the United States as well as within his own books. He has created original characters and series for comic books, and some of his more popular horror stories have been adapted to comics.

His archives have been a source of material for biographies and non-fiction books containing his personal essays, discussions of his fringe theatre work, interviews, and other content.

✵ 5. October 1952   •   Other names کلایو بارکر
Clive Barker photo
Clive Barker: 101   quotes 7   likes

Clive Barker Quotes

“Of course, there was Hobart. The Inspector was probably insane, but that was all to the good. And he had one particular aspiration which Shadwell knew he might one day need to turn to his own ends. That was, to lead—as Hobart put it—a righteous crusade.”

Clive Barker

Part Six “Back Among the Blind Men”, Chapter v “Our Lady of the Bones”, Section 1 (p. 272)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

““Are you coming?” he said.
“In a moment.”
“It’s now or never.”
Maybe it would be never, then. She was so transfixed by the formidable power being unleashed in front of her, she couldn’t avert her astonished gaze. It fascinated her that strength of this magnitude should be turned to the sordid business of atrocity; something was wrong with a reality that made that possible, and offered no cure for it, nor hope of cure.”

Clive Barker

Part Thirteen “Magic Night”, Chapter iv “Symmetry”, Section 2 (p. 569)
(1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

Hope , Business , Reality

“It was absurd and frustrating, to feel so much and know so little.”

Clive Barker

Part Seven “The Demagogue”, Chapter vi “Hello, Stranger”, Section 2 (p. 306)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

Feeling

“What the enemy believed of you was probably true, or else why were you enemies in the first place?”

Clive Barker

Part Eight “The Return”, Chapter v “Nonesuch”, Section 2 (p. 353)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

“Memory, prophecy and fantasy
the past, the future and
the dreaming moment between
are all one country,
living one immortal day.

To know that is Wisdom.

To use it is the Art.”

Clive Barker book The Great and Secret Show

The Great and Secret Show

Wisdom , Dreams , Art , Memory

“The monsters act out our rage. They act on their worst impulses, which is appealing to a certain part of us. They get punished for it, but we've enjoyed the spectacle of their liberation.”

Clive Barker

The Advocate (Feb. 21, 1995)

Rage , Parting

“Among their members were some of the wealthiest individuals in the world; between them, fortunes sufficient to trade in nations. None of the seven had a name that would have meant anything to the hoi polloi—they were, like the truly mighty, anonymously great.”

Clive Barker

Part Three “The Exiles”, Chapter ix “On the Might of Princes” (pp. 156-157)
(1987), BOOK ONE: IN THE KINGDOM OF THE CUCKOO

World

“So he believes. The truth may be more…complex.”

Clive Barker book Weaveworld

Part Eleven “The Dream Season”, Chapter iv “The Shrine of the Mortalities”, Section 3 (p. 494)
Weaveworld (1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

Truth

“If we have nothing to do but service our own pleasure – because society has taught us that's all we're worth and we're exiled from positions of authority from which we could actually shape society – then we just become hedonists. Eventually, despite how great it may look on Saturday night, come Monday morning there's just purposelessness.”

Clive Barker

The Advocate (Feb. 21, 1995)

Pleasure , Night

“There was such sanity in his voice; a politician’s sanity, as he sold his flock the wisdom of the bomb. This soulless certainty was more chilling than hysteria or malice.”

Clive Barker

Part Eleven “The Dream Season”, Chapter vi “Death Comes Home”, Section (p. 507)
(1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

Wisdom

“Life and wisdom. What more could anybody ask?”

Clive Barker

Part Eight “The Return”, Chapter viii “The Essential Dragon” (p. 373)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

Life , Wisdom

“Shadwell threw down his gun, and—though he had no taste for abattoirs—forced himself to survey the carnage before him. It was, he knew, the responsibility of one aspiring to godhood never to look away. Willful ignorance was the last refuge of humanity, and that was a condition he would soon have transcended.
And, when he studied the scene, it wasn’t so unbearable. He could look at the tumble of corpses and see them for the empty sacks they were.”

Clive Barker

Part Eight “The Return”, Chapter iii “The Horse Unharnessed”, Section 2 (p. 344)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

Study

“Godhood called, and he went, fleet-footed, to worship at his own altar.”

Clive Barker

Part Eight “The Return”, Chapter xiii “A Fleeting Glimpse”, Section 1 (p. 402)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

“I've held a brain in my hands, which is an extraordinary experience.”

Clive Barker

Gigaplex's interview, 1995

““Don’t be sentimental,” he chided. “Memories aren’t enough.”
It was fruitless to argue the niceties of that: he was telling her that he was in pain; he didn’t want platitudes or metaphysics.”

Clive Barker

Part Twelve “Stalking Paradise”, Chapter i “A Chapter of Accidents”, Section 4 (p. 517)
(1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

Pain , Memory

““And us?” said the Hag. “What happens to us then? Will we be free?”
“That’s what we agreed.”
“We can go into extinction?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“More than anything,” said the Hag. “More than anything.”
“There are worse things than existence,” said Immacolata.
“Oh?” the Hag replied. “Can you name one?”
Immacolata thought for a short while.
“No,” she conceded, with a soft sigh of distress. “You may be right, sister.””

Clive Barker

Part Five “Revels”, Chapter iv “Allegiances”, Section 1 (p. 210)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

Sister

“Suzanna didn’t wait for confirmation. There was no use disbelieving the worst now.”

Clive Barker

Part Eleven “The Dream Season”, Chapter iv “The Shrine of the Mortalities”, Section 3 (p. 494)
(1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

Waiting

“The fact that Pinhead is a character that audiences want to watch, that women find sexy, that people have tattooed on their own bodies, I think, is perfectly extraordinary, and I'm incredibly pleased about it. I don't think an analysis of what he does in the movies ever completely illuminates the charm that the guy has.”

Clive Barker

"A Living 'Hellraiser'", The Daily Bruin, Thursday, May 7, 1992

Women , People , Guy , Thinking

“I was a weird little kid. I was very irritable, bored, frustrated. I felt my imagination bubbling inside my head without having any way to express itself. Given a crayon and paper, I would not draw a train or a house. I would draw these monsters, beasts and demons.”

Clive Barker

Gigaplex's interview, 1995

Way , Imagination , Drawing , Housing

“Lilia sighed. “Why me?” she said, still shaking. “Why should I have to tell it?”
“Because you’re the best liar,” Jerichau replied with a tight smile. “You can make it true.””

Clive Barker

Part Three “The Exiles”, Chapter ii “Walking in the Dark” (p. 123)
(1987), BOOK ONE: IN THE KINGDOM OF THE CUCKOO

Smile

“Your average game show host on TV, for instance, doesn't believe himself to be banal. He actually thinks that he's quite interesting. And if you look at the viewing figures, so do an enormous number of people in this country.”

Clive Barker

American Heroes #174

People , Game , Thinking , Country

“Always the sightseers: open-mouthed, disbelieving. There was a force for desolation loose in their midst which could consume their lives at a glance, surely they could see that? But they’d watch anyway, willing to embrace the void if it came with sufficient razzmatazz.”

Clive Barker

Part Eleven “The Dream Season”, Chapter v “The Naked Flame”, Section 4 (p. 502)
(1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

“Shadwell?” said Suzanna.
“Their beloved Prophet,” came the reply. “Beneath that show of holiness I lent him there beats a salesman’s heart.”
So Shadwell was the Prophet. What a perfect irony, that the seller of encyclopedias should end up peddling hope.
“It was his idea,” said the Incantatrix, “to give them a Messiah. Now they’ve got a righteous crusade, as Hobart calls it. They’re going to claim their promised land. And destroy it in the process.”
“They won’t fall for this.”
“They already have, sister. Holy wars are easier to start than rumors among your Kind or mine. They believe every sacred word he tells them, as though their lives depended upon it. Which in a sense they do. They’ve been conspired against and cheated—and they’re ready to tear the Fugue apart to get their hands on those responsible. Isn’t that perfect? The Fugue’ll die at the very hands of those who’ve come to save it.”
“And that’s what Shadwell wants?”

Clive Barker book Weaveworld

“He’s a man: he wants adoration.”She gazed over Suzanna’s shoulder toward the unweaving, and the Salesman, still in its midst. “And that’s what he’s got. So he’s happy.”
Part Seven “The Demagogue”, Chapter x “Fatalities”, Section 1 (p. 321)
Weaveworld (1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE

War , Hope , Idea , Sense

“She told him she made a rule of never marrying bankers. The next day he sent flowers, and a note saying that he’d relinquished his profession.”

Clive Barker

Part Eleven “The Dream Season”, Chapter ii “Representations”, Section 2 (p. 479)
(1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

Flowers

“Non-fiction contains facts, fiction contains truth.”

Clive Barker

Next Testament (Boom Studios, 2014)

Truth

“Flesh is our indisputable commonality. Whatever our race, our religion, our politics we are faced every morning with the fact of our bodies. Their frailties, their demands, their desires. And yet the erotic appetites that spring from - and are expressed through - those bodies, are so often a source of bitter dissension and division. Acts that offer a glimpse of transcendence to one group are condemned by another. We are pressured from every side - by peers, by church, by state - to accept the consensual definition of taboo; though so often what excites our imaginations most is the violation of taboo.”

Clive Barker

Introduction to "One Flesh" exibition, April 4-27, 1997

Religion , Imagination , Spring

““Don’t worry,” he told her.
“Me?” she said. “I never worry. It’s all going to end badly whether I worry or not.””

Clive Barker

Part Thirteen “Magic Night”, Chapter ii “Shelter from the Storm”, Section 2 (p. 553)
(1987), BOOK THREE: OUT OF THE EMPTY QUARTER

“I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker.”

Clive Barker

Stephen King, as quoted by Richard Harrington, reviewing Barker's film ' Hellraiser https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/hellraiserrharrington_a0aa6a.htm, The Washington Post, September 19, 1987

Future

“...I have seen the future of implausible plotting, and his name is Clive Barker.”

Clive Barker

Roger Ebert, reviewing Barker's film Hellraiser https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hellraiser-1987, The Chicago Sun Times, September 18, 1987

Future