Exquisite Corpse Quotes

“It was like discovering that your innermost fires and terrors, the things you believed no one else could fathom, were in fact the basis of a recognized philosophy. Some part of you felt intimately invaded, threatened; some other part fell to its knees and sobbed in gratitude that it was no longer alone.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I press my hands against my chest, wishing I could somehow be even closer to him. I hate skin; I hate bones and bodies. I want to curl up inside of him and be carried there forever.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I'm your nightmare. Did you think you were done with nightmares, now you've become one?”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Horror is the badge of humanity, worn proudly, self-righteously, and often falsely.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Never relinquish your terrors. That's when they catch you.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“But if I die without trying again, I'm a coward. I don't mind having regrets about stuff I've done. It's the regrets about stuff I haven't done that bother me.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“And what was I if not death's ghostwriter?”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Ah, relationships. If he was lucky, Luke thought, he would never have another one.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Stay with me.’ His eyes shone. ‘Play with me.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I’d say to myself, Andrew Compton, you’ve sucked their cold mouths and cocks; you’ve licked their blood from your hands by the bucketful; you’ve boiled the flesh off their skulls, then used the same pot to make curry. Why not just fry up a few tender bits and see what it’s like—perhaps with a nice egg?”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“So what do I do with the rest of my time? he thought. Live rent-free with my parents, write in my notebooks, go out dancing, catch a buzz, get laid? It doesn't sound so bad. But what if I only have, say, five more years to live?”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I'd like him to have a good life... but all I can wish him now is a decent death.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“They may hate us for sucking cock, but at least they can't accuse of making more little cocksuckers.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I met his gaze steadily as I slammed his head into the wall, trying not to let my face contort, trying not to look angry or cruel. Most likely he was past the point of knowing anything. But if he could still see me, I wanted him to know I wasn't doing this because I hated him. Quite the contrary. Before, I had only seen him as a means to an end. But in these final moments of his life, I loved him.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“His face was a red slick, featureless, blind. He was nothing but particles now, if he had ever been anything more. I had only altered the speed at which his particles were vibrating. Nothing in the universe had been disturbed.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Jay stopped and unlocked an iron gate with finals wrought in the shape of pineapples.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“There was a chill in the air, to be sure, a damp cool vapour drifting round corners and rising from drains. But I had just come from London, where November vapours were like ill-intentioned hands sliding beneath your collar to encircle your coat-chafed, chicken-skinned throat, where November winds cut more deeply than my stolen scalpel ever did.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I'm Lush Rimbaud, and I refuse to shut up or die.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“What are you doing?"

"Killing you." A ghost of a smile touched his ips, but not his pale eyes.

"Why?"

"Because it's what we do. And because you're beautiful.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I suspected later that I might actually saved lives by killing some of them.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“And what was I if not death’s ghostwriter?”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Like someone trying to gargle boiling water.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“They may hate us for sucking cock, but at least they can’t accuse us of making more little cocksuckers.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“All the stone and iron of Painswick Prison was nothing but vibrations. Had I known, I could have begun vibrating at a different frequency and gone right between the bars.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“That chap looks as if he ate a girl's kidney last night.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Any time someone is afraid of you, you can use it to your own advantage.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Bad influences were inevitably stronger than good ones.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“Your life collided with mine and you simply failed to survive the wreckage.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“And what was a ghost but a leftover shred of ego, unable to believe it had been jilted by its own corruptible flesh?”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse

“I tried to escape what seemed a hateful prison of flesh; to imagine myself outside my body was the only way I could love it.”
― Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse