Quotes about monster
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“It is conventional to call ''monster'' any blending of dissonant elements. I call ''monster'' every original inexhaustible beauty.”

Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) French writer

Beauty

“Because I am an inhuman monster, I tend to be logical,…”

Jeff Lindsay (1952) American playwright and crime novelist Jeffry P. Freundlich

“One of my favorite things about hanging out with the monsters is the healing. Straight humans seemed to get killed on me a lot. Monsters survived. Let's hear it for the monsters.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Cerulean Sins

Source: Cerulean Sins

“I am an invisible monster, and I am incapable of loving anybody. You don't know which is worse.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Variant: I'm an invisible monster. I'm incapable of loving anybody. You don't know which is worse.
Source: Invisible Monsters

Love

“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“I've always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.”

David Benioff book City of Thieves

Source: City of Thieves

People, Sleep, Envy

“My friend is going to save a little girl from monsters. I am going with him. That's what friends do.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Girl

“Imagination without reason produces impossible monsters; with reason, it becomes the mother of the arts, and the source of its marvels.”

Francisco De Goya (1746–1828) Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)

quoted by Albert Frederick Calvert, in Goya; an account of his life and works; publisher London J. Lane, 1908; as quoted in Francisco Goya, Hugh Stokes, Herbert Jenkins Limited Publishers, London, 1914, pp. 355-377
Goya wrote this inscription upon a later copy of the etching-plate Capricho no. 43
1790s

Art, Imagination

“Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER.”

Walter Dean Myers book Monster

Source: Monster

Life, Feeling

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Fear

“I love zombies. If any monster could Riverdance, it would be zombies.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

Love

“You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Forgetting

“But grief makes a monster out of us sometimes… and sometimes you say and do things to the people you love that you can't forgive yourself for.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Love, People, Forgiveness

“A monster. You and your friends, all of you. Pretty monsters. It's a stage all girls go through. If you're lucky you get through it without doing any permanent damage to yourself or anyone else.”

Kelly Link (1969) American writer

Girl

“Here I had a wonderful man who cared for me
and I was screwing around with a self-absorbed, conniving monster who'd betrayed me
in the worst possible way.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Way

“I'd scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I'd yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear.

-Bryce”

Wendelin Van Draanen Flipped

Source: Flipped

World

“Monsters are born of pain, and grief, and loss, and anger. Your heart is full of them.-
-"And?"
And it makes you vulnerable.”

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: Summer Knight

Pain, Loss, Heart, Anger

“Well, the first thing is that I love monsters, I identify with monsters.”

Guillermo del Toro (1964) Mexican film director

Source: The Monsters Of Hellboy II

Love

“Monsters are divine portents.”

Andrew Davidson

The Gargoyle

“I know there are monsters on this earth,' said Tessa. 'You cannot tell me otherwise. I have seen them.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“The underground of the city is like what's underground in people. Beneath the surface, it's boiling with monsters.”

Guillermo del Toro (1964) Mexican film director

People

“The way you slam your body into mine reminds me I’m alive, but monsters are always hungry, darling.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Way

“But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Sea

“Harry Dresden: Maybe it wasn't anything I'd done. Maybe the monsters had gone on strike. Yeah right.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: The Dresden Files, Fool Moon (2001), Chapter 1
Source: Storm Front

“Imagination is the golden-eyed monster that never sleeps. It must be fed; it cannot be ignored.”

Patricia A. McKillip (1948) American fantasy writer

Imagination, Sleep

“Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

“Armed with my sword and wand, I was all set for a stroll through the swamp to look for a hungry monster. Oh, joy!”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Sobek

Source: The Son of Sobek

Joy

“A little boy who's discovered the monster under the bed is actually real, and it's screwing Mommy.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book The Killing Dance

Source: The Killing Dance

Boy

“Everyone carries around his own monsters.---Richard Pryor”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

“Introspection is a devouring monster. You have to feed it with much material, much experience, many people, many places, many loves, many creations, and then it ceases feeding on you.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Love, People

“i remembered the myth about Andromeda and how she had been chained to a rock by her own parents as a sacrifice to a sea monster. Maybe she'd gotten too many F's on her report card or something.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Parent, Sea

“He had become a monster. You just couldn't see it… because it wore the face of a friend.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“He told me about his monster. His sounded just like mine without quite so much mascara. When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

People, Light

“We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them.”

Colson Whitehead book Zone One

Source: Zone One

People

“this blue shirt i have is practically the same color as my jeans, and looking all-blue is something only cookie monster can pull off.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Color

“Beckendorf, whose legs were now working fine (nothing like being chased by a huge monster to get your body back in order) shook his head and gasped for breath. “You shouldn’t have turned it on! It’s unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

“The monster licked his lips, long lines of whiskers twitching, and spoke in a deep growl. "Pretty, aren't I?" Curran. In midform. I broke from his gaze. "Adorable.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

“Loads of children read books about dinosaurs, underwater monsters, dragons, witches, aliens, and robots. Essentially, the people who read SF, fantasy and horror haven't grown out of enjoying the strange and weird.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

Children, People, Books, Reading

“Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Stupidity

“But, with time, one has encountered many of the monsters, and one is increasingly less terrified of those still to be met.”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Time

“I choose my battles, Dresden. Not you." She looked up at me calmly. "Let me put this in terms that will get through your skull: My friend is going to save a child from monsters. I'm going with him. That's what friends do, Harry.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

“Fantasy and science fiction can be literal as well as allegorical and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a monster like a giant squid for what it is, as well as searching for metaphor.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

Search, Science

“Literature is humanity's broad-minded alter-ego, with room in its heart for monsters, even for you. It's humanity without the judgement.”

Glen Duncan (1965) British writer

Source: Talulla Rising

Literature, Heart

“Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan, and in the horrible features of those same monsters the power of the creator is revealed.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

Parting

“i am going to bed. i will have nightmares involving huge monsters in academic robes carrying long bloody butcher knives labeled Excerpt, Selection, Passage, and Abridged.”

Helene Hanff book 84, Charing Cross Road

Source: 84, Charing Cross Road

“It is not the slumber of reason that engenders monsters, but vigilant and insomniac rationality.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Source: Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

“To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Soul, Forgetting

“Men really do need sea-monsters in their personal oceans”

John Steinbeck book The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Source: The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Men, Personality, Sea

“I feel like I'm lost in an anime movie" I said, as Coyote picked the thing up. "One of the tentacle-monster ones." Most of them were X-rated and ended up with a lot of dead people.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

People, Feeling, Animals, Dead

“Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Fight

“We both believe in monsters. But all the ghosts and demons are you. And all the angels and genies are you. All the kings, queens, Buddhas, beautiful boys. Inside you. No one can take them away. (Missing Angel Juan.)”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Beauty, Angels, Boy

“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state on innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

People, Reality, Dead

“Monster only had the power that you gave them”

Neal Shusterman book Everlost

Source: Everlost

“Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)

Independence Day address (1821)
Context: America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet on her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world; she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.... Her glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

Search, Freedom, Heart

“Monsters cannot be announced. One cannot say: 'here are our monsters', without immediately turning the monsters into pets.”

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) French philosopher (1930-2004)

Some Statements and Truisms about Neologisms, Newisms, Postisms, Parasitisms, and other small Seismisms, The States of Theory, ed. David Carroll, New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.

“I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.”

Shirley Jackson book The Haunting of Hill House

Source: The Haunting of Hill House

Feeling

“We'de have to get in and get out the hard way; and if we made a mistake, there was no telling what sort of curse we'de unleash: monster guardians, plagues, fires, exploding donkeys(don't laugh; they're bad news).”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Way

“You're a monster.
Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise?
No, just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustable.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“Sin is the Monster we love to deny. It is crouching at the door and it wants you, but you must overcome it.”

Frank E. Peretti (1951) American writer

Love

“But the problem is to make the soul into a monster”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Soul, Problem

“A monster is a person who has stopped pretending.”

Colson Whitehead (1969) novelist

Personality

“Not all monsters were three-ton reptiles with poisonous breath. Many wore human faces.”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

“I'm a vampire, idiot. I don't have x-ray vision." "Some supernatural monster you are, remind me to trade you in for a werewolf, bro. Probably be more useful right now.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Kiss of Death

“It was only when Shona, in sheer fury, turned the carnivorous sheep among them that they moved. They ran, some of them with charming little white sheep attached to their legs or backsides and the rest shouting about monsters.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Dark Lord of Derkholm

Source: Dark Lord of Derkholm

“Until we have met the monsters in ourselves, we keep trying to slay them in the outer world. And we find that we cannot. For all darkness in the world stems from darkness in the heart. And it is there that we must do our work.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness And Making Miracles

World, Heart

“She'd never seen a monster like that before, had never heard of one in all the Lore. When she grappled with the question of what it was, her sharply honed scientifical mind deduced one answer: manbearpig.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Demon from the Dark

Question

“Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions”

Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) Martiniquais writer, psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary

“Just because he has black fingernails doesn't mean he's a monster-that's how you've defended yourself for years.”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: Dance with a Vampire

“Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?”

Dennis Lehane book Shutter Island

Source: Shutter Island

“They’re waiting for you. Go on in.” Adrian leaned close to Keith’s ear and spoke in an ominous voice. “If. You. Dare.” He poked Keith’s shoulder and gave a "Muhahaha” kind of monster laugh.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Waiting

“Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous, green rage monster.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Way, Rage

“The monster I kill every day is the monster of realism. The monster who attacks me every day is destruction. Out of the duel comes the transformation. I turn destruction into creation over and over again.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin

“That was the thing to remember about all monsters, They love to frighten
people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.”

Jeannette Walls (1960) American writer and journalist

Love, People

“I couldn't help thinking about my dream, with Annabeth crumpled and lifeless in Luke's arms. Here I was rescuing baby monsters, but I couldn't save my friend.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Dreams, Thinking, Help, Baby

“You destroy buildings, fight monsters openly in the streets of the city, work with the police, show up in newspapers, advertise in the phone book, and ride zombie dinosaurs down Michigan Avenue, and think that you work in the shadows? Be reasonable.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

Books, Thinking, Fight

“As a child, I was aware that, at night, infrared vision would reveal monsters hiding in the bedroom closet only if they were warm-blooded. But everybody knows that your average bedroom monster is reptilian and cold-blooded.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson book Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

Source: Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

Night

“This inhuman place makes human monsters.”

Stephen King book The Shining

Variant: Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.
Source: The Shining 1977

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) Italian writer, politician, theorist, sociologist and linguist

Loose translation, commonly attributed to Gramsci by Slavoj Žižek, presumably formulation by Žižek (see below). Presumably a translation from a loose French translation by Gustave Massiah; strict English with cognate terms and glosses: Le vieux monde se meurt, le nouveau monde tarde à apparaître et dans ce clair-obscur surgissent les monstres The old world is dying, the new world tardy (slow) to appear and in this chiaroscuro (light-dark) surge (emerge) monsters. “ Mongo Beti, une conscience noire, africaine, universelle http://www.liberationafrique.org/imprimersans.php3?id_article=16&nom_site=Lib%C3%A9ration”, Gustave Massiah, CEDETIM, août 2002 ( archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061734/http://www.liberationafrique.org/imprimersans.php3?id_article=16&nom_site=Lib%C3%A9ration, 2016-03-04) “Mongo Beti, a Black, African, Universal Conscience”, Gustave Massiah, CEDETIM, August 2002 Collected in: Remember Mongo Beti, Ambroise Kom, 2003, p. 149 https://books.google.com/books?id=6YgdAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Le+vieux+monde+se+meurt,+le+nouveau+monde+tarde+%C3%A0+appara%C3%AEtre+et+dans+ce+clair-obscur+surgissent+les+monstres%22. Original, with literal English translation (see above): La crisi consiste appunto nel fatto che il vecchio muore e il nuovo non può nascere: in questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi piú svariati. The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear. Similar sentiments are widespread in revolutionary rhetoric; see: No, Žižek did not attribute a Goebbels quote to Gramsci http://thecharnelhouse.org/2015/07/03/no-zizek-did-not-attribute-a-goebbels-quote-to-gramsci/, Ross Wolfe, 2015-07-03 Misattributed Source: Selections from the Prison Notebooks

World, Time

“Where there is a monster, there is a miracle.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

“Who needs make-believe monsters when there are so many real ones.”

Jennifer Donnelly (1963) American writer

Source: The Winter Rose

“Daddy will explain. Come, he is blowing up monsters.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“Love was the most savage monster of all.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Love

“I had been taught to look for monsters and devils and I found ordinary people.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

Source: The Passion

People

“Silena, take the Aphrodite crew to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel."

Oh my gods," one of her sisters said. "Fifth Avenue ison our way! We could accessorize, and monsters, like, hate the smell of Givenchy.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

God, Hate, Way, Sister

“Then stop trying to throw logic at nightmares. Sometimes the monsters are real, Anita. Sometimes they're real and the only way to defeat them is to be the bigger monster. ~Bibiana to Anita”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Bullet

Variant: Sometimes the monsters are real, Anita. Sometimes they’re real and the only way to defeat them is to be the bigger monster.'
- Chang Bibi to Anita
Source: Bullet

Way

“His lion and hippo legs twitched. I wondered if netherworld monsters dreamed of chasing rabbits.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Dreams

“Eating next to a twenty-foot-long crocodile took some getting used to, but Philip was well trained. He only ate bacon, stray waterfowl, and the occasional invading monster.”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

Training