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Ask the Author: Clive Barker

“Ask me a question.” Clive Barker

Answered Questions (12)

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What is the most disturbing book you have ever read?
Clive Barker That's an easy one. The Bible.
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If you are willing to share, what is the most frightening dream you have ever had? If not the whole dream, then a particular aspect or 'player' in the dream that was truly terrifying to you.
Clive Barker It is a dream which I think is almost a universal dream, which is a dream of stasis. Utter stasis. I'm certain I'm awake, but I am unable to move, and utterly trapped by the knowledge that I'm conscious.
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If you were asked to pen the most shocking sex scene involving a fetish, what would you write about?
Clive Barker It was something I did....
And because of that and because of a court case which is ongoing, I can say no more!
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How many words do you try to get at one sitting?
Clive Barker I don't count words. I still write by hand. But I've always considered twenty handwritten pages to be a good day.
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Have any of your characters stuck with you long after you last wrote about them?
Clive Barker Some of them even follow me into my dreams.
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You write horror, but when you have time to read do you also read horror or is there a different genre you prefer?
Clive Barker I beg to differ. I don't think I write horror. I am a man who invents worlds of dark, and light, and somewhere in between, but the idea of writing something just to horrify people is rather trite, I think. I want to distress and disturb and wake people up to the condition of the state we find ourselves in. And those are the kinds of stories I prefer to read as well.
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Who is your favourite author?
Clive Barker I don't have an answer for that. I think singularities are very hard. I get tired with the culture's pre-occuption with 'this person is more important than that person' when in actual fact it really all just depends on mood, doesn't it? Anna Karenina doesn't fill me with lust, but there are times I don't want to feel lustful.
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What makes a creature scary?
Clive Barker A creature is at its most terryfing when you are unable to find anything about it to love.
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How do you find your ideas, and how do you know when an idea is going to become an amazing book like Imajica?
Clive Barker It's the other way around. They find me. And the ones that refuse to let go are the ones I have not choice but to listen to.
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Can you simplify the structure of a good horror story?
Clive Barker I firmly believe that a horror story is only as good as its villain.
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Is there a book you consider your greatest achievement?
Clive Barker Absolutely. Imajica. It was my gift to myself on my 40th birthday.
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Can you tell us a two-sentence horror story?
Clive Barker A husband and wife with no children of their own woke to the sound of a crying baby, its despairing shrieks emanating from their closet. The husband investigated, and only found more questions when he uncovered the hidden shoebox containing polaroids of his wife as a pregnant teenager.
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Clive Barker
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