Victor LaValle

“Shirley Jackson enjoyed notoriety and commercial success within her lifetime, and yet it still hardly seems like enough for a writer so singular. When I meet readers and other writers of my generation, I find that mentioning her is like uttering a holy name.”

“Lumpy and lazy; I aspired to lethargy. In the second year of university, I missed half my classes just because I couldn't pull myself out of bed.”

“What's beautiful about Godzilla is, of course, it's in every way a symbol of Japan dealing with the aftermath of the atomic bombs being dropped on them, and their ideas of how they're affected by it.”

“There's the wonder of being able to do research from your own living room, of course. I do find that my biggest research issue, though, is how to frame my questions.”

“Education is gathering information and reading... No human being can thrive without some form of education. How you get it is up to you - the important thing is that you get it.”

“Writing to corroborate what you already think is the essence of bad writing.”

“I'm a big fan of monsters. Number one, they're fun, and two, they're such great ways to access the subconscious fears and beliefs of any group of people.”