Karl Edward Wagner > Quotes

“We cannot escape from our daily routine, because it will go with us wherever we go.... God must be sought and found in the things of our world. By regarding our daily duties as something performed for the honour and glory of God, we can convert what was hitherto soul-killing monotony, to a living worship of God in all our actions. Everyday life must become itself our prayer.”
― Karl Edward Wagner

“Men told that Kane was a giant in stature, more powerful than ten strong men. In battle no man could stand before him, for he fought with a sword in either hand - wielding easily weapons that another warrior could scarcely lift. His hair was red as blood, and he feasted on the still-beating hearts of his enemies. His eyes were the eyes of Death himself, and they cast a blue flame that could shrivel the souls of his victims. His only delight was in rapine and slaughter, and after each victory his banquet halls echoed with the tortured screams of captive maidens.”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Darkness Weaves

“In their castle beyond night
Gather the Gods in Darkness,
With darkness to pattern man's fate.

The colors of darkness are no monotonous hue -
For the blackness of Evil knows various shades,
Full many as Evil has names.

Vengeance and Madness, inseparable twins,
Born together and worshipped as one;
Nor can the Gods tell one from his brother.

In their castle beyond night
Gather the Gods in Darkness
And darkness weaves with many shades.”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Darkness Weaves

“No heroism in forever following the calculations of one’s cunning mind. A man ought to attempt the illogical, if there’s fire in his heart.”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Bloodstone

“We are a race of heroes who have outlived the age of heroes!”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Night Winds

“Why were there no cries of birds, no sounds of life, other than the incessant murmur of the brooding pines?”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Where the Summer Ends: The Best Horror Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, Volume One

“I wonder how mankind would fare, should some cosmic disaster blast our civilization into forgotten rubble. Perhaps we would return to the trees and caves of our bestial ancestors--skulking apemen that a mad creator's folly transformed into men--and not even legend would remember the dead majesty of our race.”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Bloodstone

“Writers don't have friends. Only deadlines. And cheating publishers. And meddling editors. And carping reviewers. And checks that never come when they're supposed to come, and are always short when they do come.”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Why Not You and I

“Thus the earliest tale, “In the Pines,” a ghost story which perhaps isn’t only that, acknowledges its echo of “The Beckoning Fair One,” though the reader may be more struck by the ways in which it prefigures The Shining, published three years later. “In the Pines” is the first statement of one of Wagner’s recurring themes, the swallowing up of characters and their psychological conflicts by a vividly imagined, almost hallucinatory landscape. If “In the Pines” incorporates Wagner’s tributes to several aspects of British supernatural fiction, not least a piny whiff of Algernon Blackwood,”
― Karl Edward Wagner, In a Lonely Place

“There’s something about The Ramones, pump shotguns, and pictures of raw meat that soothes my tormented soul.”
― Karl Edward Wagner

“How come only evil forces were released?”
“Because there are no good forces.”
“So, then. You don’t believe that there is a God.”
“There was a god.”
“Well, then. Where is he now?”
“I killed him,” said Kane.”
― Karl Edward Wagner, At First Just Ghostly

“There’s something about The Ramones, pump shotguns, and pictures of raw meat that soothes my tormented soul”
― Karl Edward Wagner, Conan: The Road of Kings