American - Novelist | August 20, 1890 - March 15, 1937
I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me.
H. P. Lovecraft
WorkFearMeEnthusiasmRealFlags
There are, I think, four distinct types of weird story: one expressing a mood or feeling, another expressing a pictorial conception, a third expressing a general situation, condition, legend or intellectual conception, and a fourth explaining a definite tableau or specific dramatic situation or climax.
StoryThinkLegendWeirdSituation
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.
EmotionsHumanCommonLawsValidity
To the scientist there is the joy in pursuing truth which nearly counteracts the depressing revelations of truth.
TruthJoyDepressingScientistWhich
The real lover of cats is one who demands a clearer adjustment to the universe than ordinary household platitudes provide; one who refuses to swallow the sentimental notion that all good people love dogs, children, and horses while all bad people dislike and are disliked by such.
LoveGoodChildrenCatsPeopleBad
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.
WorkSimpleProgressResultSuspense
Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.
StrangeHorrorPlacesFarAfter
Children, old crones, peasants, and dogs ramble; cats and philosophers stick to their point.
ChildrenCatsOldDogsPointStick
I am essentially a recluse who will have very little to do with people wherever he may be. I think that most people only make me nervous - that only by accident, and in extremely small quantities, would I ever be likely to come across people who wouldn't.
I AmPeopleMeSmallThinkNervous
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.
DogFriendInterestingChooseMore
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.
DogWishWishesHimEqualMaster
For correct writing, the cultivation of patience and mental accuracy is essential. Throughout the young author's period of apprenticeship, he must keep reliable dictionaries and textbooks at his elbow; eschewing as far as possible that hasty extemporaneous manner of writing which is the privilege of more advanced students.
PatienceWritingYoungPossibleMore
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