CLIVE BARKER

All I've ever wanted to do is darken the day and brighten the night.

My imagination is my polestar; I steer by that.

Be regular and orderly in your life, that you may be violent and original in your work.

Some people think that horror films are some sort of second class filmmaking, and the only way to bypass that thinking is being proud of the fact that we do it.

I don't like PG-13 horror movies. I think they're a contradiction in terms.

It is great good health to believe, as the Hindus do, that there are 33 million gods and goddesses in the world. It is great good health to want to understand one's dreams. It is great good health to desire the ambiguous and paradoxical.

I remember when I watched 'Hellraiser' with my mother. She cried when she saw my name in the opening credits, and I had to tell her that that was the happiest she was going to be for the next two hours.

Gather experience... Look at what you should not look at. A feeling of anxiety is the sure and certain evidence that you should do this.

There's a lot of art and comics and movies being paid homage to by game designers.

My life is in the art that I make, and I'm very happy with it.

One of the things I'm trying to do over and over again in my books is create new mythologies, create new ways to understand the complexity of the world. I think what mythology does is impress upon chaotic experience the patterns, hierarchies and shapes which allow us to interpret the chaos and make fresh sense of it.

I don't feel there's any reason to apologise for having a wicked imagination. I think it's important as a maker of fantasy and of horror.

Nothing ever begins. There is no first moment; no single word or place from which this or any other story springs.

What I tried to do is deliver movies that have worked for me more than once.

I've got deeper journeys to take. Metaphysical journeys. Journeys to see Christ. Shaman journeys. It's what I've been elected by God to do.

I have the normal complement of anxieties, neuroses, psychoses and whatever else - but I'm absolutely nothing special.

I'm a great dog fanatic. My own dog died a little while ago and I take it very personally when things die - it's a major offence.

As for theatre, there's ups and downs to everything. Theatre is ephemeral. But that is part of its charm because you can always say the production was better than it was.

Books should make somebody look at how they feel, be honest with themselves.

I firmly believe that a story is only as good as the villain.

I don't take accusations of selling out lightly.

For a writer, and particularly a writer of my genre, which is the fantastical, I think that it's to my advantage to feel remote from and disconnected from the world of deal making.

You can plan to be brave - it's even better if you just try to be brave.

I'm not the expert on the great gameplay. I come in for the character design, monsters, atmosphere. I'm not the technician.

I certainly knew from an early age... how to tell stories; how to create pictures in other people's heads.