Quotes from Jeff Vandermeer

But this—this is always the same task over and over, to explore cryptozoology of a crude sort. All that changes is the type of animal, and the only challenge is whether the jaws on a crocodile can reasonably be expected to fit onto a bear. For example.

He was walking toward the lighthouse along the trail, but the moon was hemorrhaging blood into its silver circle, and he knew that terrible things must have happened to Earth for the moon to be dying

Perché, dopo averla rinviata in così tanti modi, credo che la mia trasformazione sarà più radicale del previsto, che potrei diventare davvero qualcosa di simile alla creatura lamentosa. A quel punto vedrò la luna vera?

H.P. Lovecraft is a self-admitted early influence on Ligotti's work. However, in a kind of metaphysical horror story of its own, Ligotti early on subsumed Lovecraft and left his dry husk behind, having taken what sustenance he needed for his own devices. (Most other writers are, by contrast, consumed by Lovecraft when they attempt to devour him.)

there is something useful about the focal point of a story being an animal...I think it is very important right now, with regard to preservation of nature, to try to inhabit non-human perspectives and to, in some way, use fiction as the laboratory it should be. To explore things that are outside of the norms and not use it for the novel of manners or the thing that has been done before. (from Bloom Aftertalk interview)

Renaissance artist Gregorio Comanini, has counseled the equivalent of "Live an ordinary, regular life so you can be irregular and brilliant in your creativity.

You don't know this, 'cause you're too young," came the usual lecture, "but the politicians run all the big scams. Government's the thief of all time. That's why it tries so hard to catch thieves - it doesn't like the competition

and in the aftermath he'd taken back his name, asked that she call him Control again rather than John, which she respected. Some animals' shells were vital to their survival. Some animals couldn't live for long without them.

I have never done well in cities, even though I lived in one by necessity—because my husband needed to be there, because the best jobs for me were there

The face that stares back at you from the mirror later in life is so different than when you're young. There's a winnowing away and a shutting down. A sense of something having been taken from you and you don't know exactly what it is, just that it isn't there anymore.

I read the booklet from cover to cover like it was a wonderful meal and I was a starving man. I devoured every word.

But the trick of the world was to contain all things.

Homeland security still exists?" "Not by that name. Just their drones. Do you know how many secret drones lacerate the sky these days? They'll outlast us all. Form their own civilization.

Ghost bird, do you love me?" he whispered once in the dark, before he left for his expedition training, even though he was the ghost. "Ghost bird, do you need me?" I loved him, but I didn't need him, and I thought that was the way it was supposed to be.

I never much understood the point of the world of men. How they fed off each other. How they motivated themselves. I mean, I got the purpose, but I navigated that world the way an astronaut would an alien landscape. Trying not to breathe the same air. Which was impossible, of course.

As for chaos," Mamoud said, "chaos is not what is happening around you, but how you conduct yourself around … chaos." The earth erupted in explosion and flames not forty feet from the turret. Mamoud didn't flinch, but Jonathan definitely did. Even Lady Insult put her spyglass down. The tower shuddered from the footfall of the elephants. There was a sour smell like sulfur.

Non volevo le loro voci nella mia mente, le loro idee su di me, le loro storie o i loro problemi personali. Perché avrebbero dovuto volere i miei?

A quell'epoca, io stavo cercando l'oblio, e cercavo in quei volti assenti, anonimi, anche nei più penosamente familiari, una specie di innocua fuga. Una morte che non significasse essere morti.

I am sure of the here and now, this moment, and the next. I am sure of my past." That was ghost bird's castle keep, and it was inviolate.

And, if I'm honest, I can't shake the sense that he is still here, somewhere, even if utterly transformed - in the eye of a dolphin, in the touch of an uprising of moss, anywhere and everywhere.

Megalodon mad. Megalodon not happy. Megalodon have tantrum.

What's wrong with asking questions?" "Nothing." Everything. Once the questions snuck in, whatever had been certain became uncertain. Questions opened the way for doubt.

All I could think was, The psychologist lied to us, and suddenly the pressure of her presence far above, guarding the entrance, was pressing down on me in an intolerable way.

Then, too, that other effect of the spores, the brightness in my chest, continued to sculpt me as I walked, and by the time I reached the deserted village that told me I was halfway to the lighthouse, I believed I could have run a marathon. I did not trust that feeling. I felt, in so many ways, that I was being lied to.