Larry Mitchell > Quotes

“Big Brother has no interest in well-informed citizens capable of critical thinking. Big Brother wants you to shop at Wal-Mart, where He will control the media that influences your life. The media works with the government and with the large corporations to form mass culture, which is utilized to create public consent, and most folks aren’t even aware of this process as it goes on all around them. Big Brother is actively seeking the complacency of the wage-slaves. Big Brother doesn’t want you to know about the spoken word performances given by Henry Rollins, or Jello Biafra or Terrence McKenna- or a thousand other people- because they will crack your laminate of societal posturing. Big Brother doesn’t want you to know about Bill Hicks, because Brother Bill will provide you with the courage and impetus to spit in Big Brother’s face. The internet is but one facet of our mass-marketed popular culture, and everyone is plugged into it. If you’re reading this, you are a part of it, the internet, one large hive mind, a singular consciousness. And that can be a good thing, but too often, people let themselves slip into it, into this world, to the point where they are no longer able to differentiate between what they think, what they know, and what is thrust upon them. They have no access to their own point of view, or their own spiritual consciousness, for lack of a better way to phrase it. So, to answer your question, in a lengthy and circuitous fashion, I would say that disgust with intellectual sloth, puerile voyeurism and dissent are the primary proponents in my work.”
― Larry Mitchell

“There is so much going on, but there is so much less of any real value happening. I don’t think that books or fiction in general is as important to the society or culture at large as it was in years gone by- we are the products of what I believe is a decidedly- and purposefully- less literate culture. To utilize a symbol everyone can understand intuitively, Big Brother WANTS you to be stupid- and He wants you to tune in to Joe Millionaire and Friends, to Wife Swap and Dog The Bounty Hunter, and a million other circuitous destinations where He will provide you with examples of precisely how brainless and inane He wants you to be. Stupid is as stupid does. Stupid citizens aren’t a threat to the status quo.”
― Larry Mitchell

“Put your demons to work for you, or else you'll be working for them.”
― Larry Mitchell

“WHO IS- OR WAS- YOUR FAVORITE WRITER?

For style and consistency, I would have to say John Updike. No one else in the world writes the way that he does, and very few have enjoyed the longevity of career or employed the breadth of scope that he has. Mailer’s a close second, but they are completely different animals. Bret Easton Ellis, whom I unintentionally left off of my answer to the previous question, is good as well- he creates a goodly number of inimitable situations, and his dexterity of language produces many, many killer lines- lines that belong in any literate person’s lexicon. I would say the same for Jay McInerney as well. But Easton’s output is spotty: every other book is crap. He did Less Than Zero, and that was fucking amazing, and then he did The Rules Of Attraction. After that, he wrote American Psycho- a brilliant but sadly misunderstood book at the time- but the follow-up, Glamorama, sucked horribly. At least, in my humble opinion. After that, I kind of lost interest. If you occasionally throw off a collection of shitty writing, it does affect your credibility when you seek to speak with your constituency about matters of life and death. Fiction is a deadly serious business, and if you’re dry and out of ideas, then just fucking say so and keep working at it until you’re finally writing something that it would be a crime not to let other people read.”
― Larry Mitchell

“We are living in a brightly-lit Dark Age.”
― Larry Mitchell, The Truth Inside The Lie

“To quote Jimmy Page, “Technique doesn’t come into it- I deal in emotions.” I copped that line a long, long time ago, and it is a coy way to deflect the question, but as I’ve gotten older and more experienced, I’ve discovered that it is a very prescient and true statement. I try to create a mood within myself, and then I convey that mood onto the page- or screen, as technology would have us have it these days- using the best word choice that I can possibly muster. What are the trappings I employ? Oh, candles, music, a bowl of Mother’s Finest- it’s like seducing a woman, if you can believe it, but it’s all in your mind, and then you need to get it out, in as unadulterated a fashion as possible. It’s no good if people see the puppet strings as you’re pulling them, and if it seems like a seduction- the lights too low, the music too slow- then she knows what you’re up to, and it’s all gonna seem false. The best seduction happens without anyone knowing that it’s happening at all.”
― Larry Mitchell

“HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?

I’d say it’s like…that’s always the toughest question to answer…I’d say it’s like John Updike getting felt up by Clive Barker at a party thrown by Norman Mailer, with Aphex Twin DJing the event.”
― Larry Mitchell

“If you don’t KNOW in your heart of hearts that you are the best writer on the planet, you shouldn’t even fuck with it. There’s too much BAD writing in the world, and your gut will tell you what’s good and what’s bad. Good writing is so very nourishing- it’s not bullshit and your stomach knows bullshit because you see bullshit every day of your life. Bad writing is everywhere- it always has been. The widest part of the pyramid is always at the bottom.”
― Larry Mitchell

“If you’re reading this, you are a part of it, the internet, one large hive mind, a singular consciousness. And that can be a good thing, but too often, people let themselves slip into it, into this world, to the point where they are no longer able to differentiate between what they think, what they know, and what is thrust upon them. They have no access to their own point of view, or their own spiritual consciousness, for lack of a better way to phrase it. So, to answer your question, in a lengthy and circuitous fashion, I would say that disgust with intellectual sloth, puerile voyeurism and dissent are the primary proponents in my work.”
― Larry Mitchell

“I’m not this way because I’m a writer; I’m a writer because I’m this way.”
― Larry Mitchell

“The internet is but one facet of our mass-marketed popular culture, and everyone is plugged into it. If you’re reading this, you are a part of it, the internet, one large hive mind, a singular consciousness.”
― Larry Mitchell

“Now that any cretin who can find the “ON” button on a laptop can blast their screeds hither and yon at the click of a mouse, not only has the intrinsic value of the word gone down, but the quality of our thoughts themselves has devolved. Everything, it seems, is a copy of an imitation of a reference to a pastiche. Nothing is brought forth from nothing anymore.”
― Larry Mitchell

“Writing used to be a calling, a rather celestial one, a path in life that chose you rather than you choosing it. There was a certain impoverished nobility to the trade. Not many people pursued such a path, knowing that their finances would never recover. Reagan and the 1980's greed culture assassinated any notion of doing something simply for the good of it, for the love of it, and for the betterment of all mankind.”
― Larry Mitchell

“IT IS ALL PART OF THE QUEST TO CHALLENGE AUTHORITY?

“I don't challenge authority; there isn't any.”
― Larry Mitchell