“Life is only a bedtime story before a long, long sleep.”

“Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.”

“Funny how we take it for granted that we know all there is to know about another person, just because we see them frequently or because of some strong emotional tie.” (Psycho)

“The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.”

“I always carry a pistol when I go [to the New York Public Library]. Never did trust those stone lions.”

“I urge you with all sincerity to get to work, write a book, write two—three—four books, just as a matter of course. Don’t worry about ‘wasting’ an idea or ‘spoiling’ a plot by going too fast. If you are capable of turning out a masterpiece, you’ll get other and even better ideas in the future. Right now your job is to write, and to write books so that by so doing you’ll gain the experience to write still better books later on.” (Bloch in an August 27, 1947 letter to Ray Bradbury)

“So I had this problem—work or starve. So I thought I’d combine the two and decided to become a writer.”

“Comedy and horror are opposite sides of the same coin.”

“Evil exists everywhere. Sometimes I think our limited senses are designed to protect us from awareness of its presence. We trust them to provide us with knowledge but it may be that they block out realization of horrors we cannot bear.” (Night of the Ripper)

“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.”