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" All of my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and emotions have no validity or significance in the cosmos-at-large. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Laws
Emotions
Common
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" The earliest English attempts at rhyming probably included words whose agreement is so slight that it deserves the name of mere 'assonance' rather than that of actual rhyme. "
H. P. Lovecraft
English
Name
Whose
" Certain of Poe's tales possess an almost absolute perfection of artistic form which makes them veritable beacon-lights in the province of the short story. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Makes
Story
Short
" I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Live
Furniture
Week
" The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from everyday life. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Life
Degree
Everyday
" The reason why time plays a great part in so many of my tales is that this element looms up in my mind as the most profoundly dramatic and grimly terrible thing in the universe. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Mind
Reason
Great
" It is easy to remove the mind from harping on the lost illusion of immortality. The disciplined intellect fears nothing and craves no sugar-plum at the day's end, but is content to accept life and serve society as best it may. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Mind
Day
Best
" Heaven knows where I'll end up - but it's a safe bet that I'll never be at the top of anything! Nor do I particularly care to be. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Care
Top
Safe
" From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Greatest
Irony
Horrors
" I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Flags
Fear
Real
" One can never produce anything as terrible and impressive as one can awesomely hint about. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Impressive
Terrible
Never
" It is no compliment to be the stupidly idolised master of a dog whose instinct it is to idolise, but it is a very distinct tribute to be chosen as the friend and confidant of a philosophic cat who is wholly his own master and could easily choose another companion if he found such an one more agreeable and interesting. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Compliment
Interesting
Friend
" But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Nature
Ocean
Old
" Denied anything ardently desired, the individual or state will argue and parley just so long - then, if the impelling motive be sufficiently great, will cast aside every rule and break down every acquired inhibition, plunging viciously after the object wished; all the more fantastically savage because of previous repression. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Down
Will
Long
" In writing a weird story, I always try very carefully to achieve the right mood and atmosphere and place the emphasis where it belongs. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Achieve
Writing
Weird
" If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Try
True
Religion
" We call ourselves a dog's 'master' - but who ever dared to call himself the 'master' of a cat? We own a dog - he is with us as a slave and inferior because we wish him to be. But we entertain a cat - he adorns our hearth as a guest, fellow-lodger, and equal because he wishes to be there. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Wishes
Cat
Dog
" I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Information
I Am
Opinion
" Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Haunt
Far
Strange
" One cannot be too careful in the selection of adjectives for descriptions. Words or compounds which describe precisely, and which convey exactly the right suggestions to the mind of the reader, are essential. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Describe
Right
Cannot
" Plots may be simple or complex, but suspense, and climactic progress from one incident to another, are essential. Every incident in a fictional work should have some bearing on the climax or denouement, and any denouement which is not the inevitable result of the preceding incidents is awkward and unliterary. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Result
Simple
Suspense
" Cosmic terror appears as an ingredient of the earliest folklore of all races and is crystallised in the most archaic ballads, chronicles, and sacred writings. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Most
Folklore
Cosmic
" It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth's dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be let alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Peace
Black
Life
" The 'punch' of a truly weird tale is simply some violation or transcending of fixed cosmic law - an imaginative escape from palling reality - hence, phenomena rather than persons are the logical 'heroes.' "
H. P. Lovecraft
Escape
Heroes
Law
" There be those who say that things and places have souls, and there be those who say they have not; I dare not say, myself, but I will tell of The Street. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Tell
Street
Will
" It would not be amiss for the novice to write the last paragraph of his story first, once a synopsis of the plot has been carefully prepared - as it always should be. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Story
First
Always
" Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Time
Ocean
Nature
" Nothing is really typical of my efforts... I'm simply casting about for better ways to crystallise and capture certain strong impressions (involving the elements of time, the unknown, cause and effect, fear, scenic and architectural beauty, and other seemingly ill-assorted things) which persist in clamouring for expression. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Better
Beauty
Time
" We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Up
See
Cats
" In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of rational evidence, I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist. "
H. P. Lovecraft
I Am
Appearance
Am
" We must realise that man's nature will remain the same so long as he remains man; that civilisation is but a slight coverlet beneath which the dominant beast sleeps lightly and ever ready to awake. To preserve civilisation, we must deal scientifically with the brute element, using only genuine biological principles. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Long
Man
Nature