Laurell K. Hamilton Quotations

I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans, goes home with you.

I feel that if you are blessed, or lucky enough, to be doing well, you should help others.

Like most creative people I don't fit well into boxes.

I love animals, always have, and it seemed natural to help the ASPCA. Animals have no voice of their own, so we have to be that voice

You'd think a sociopath assassin wouldn't have a fan following but he does

I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write

Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil.

You either mellow at 30, or your head explodes - take your choice.

My writing style is very sensual, as in sensory detail

I like conventions. I like meeting and greeting. I'm perched on that edge where I'm getting more attention than I quite know what to do with, though.

It was just you had to be strong, and if you weren't strong you're a victim and you're not going to make it. That was the reality when I was growing up.

Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book.

One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane.

I want a kiss to be so believable it gives the reader shivers.

Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development

By 17, I was submitting to publications and collecting my first rejection slips.

If you're open to it, New Orleans will teach you about yourself, but if you want to hide from who you really are, the city will help you do that, too.

Most of the monsters... are based on some sort of mythology. Every culture and even some geographical areas have monsters and mythology that is their own.

Readers respond to every genre intensely, if it's a genre that appeals to them. Again, who can say why anyone enjoys horror and dark fantasy? If I can't answer the question for myself, I wouldn't dream of trying to answer it for others

You give the reader a sense of a full meal.

I think that my vampires in general were influenced by my being allowed to watch the Hammer vampire films. Vampire Circus, also shown as Circus of Fear, was one of those movies

I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people's writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people's fiction. Just don't.

My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people

Here's the secret to finishing that first book. Don't rewrite as you go.

You can't save everybody. In fact, there are days when I think you can't save anyone. Each person has to save himself first, then you can move in and help. I have found this philosophy does not work during a gun battle, or a knife fight either. Outside of that it works just fine.

I went to Marion College for writing and I was kicked out of the writing school. I was asked to leave the writing program because I was corrupting the other students.

Nothing wrong with making money or doing what you need to do to sell, but I think it shows when you're writing something to pay the bills and when you're writing something because it's really your version of the world.

I guess, what I'm saying is that when I've been this surprised by my own characters and world, all bets are off.

If it works out, it's the best thing in the world. If it doesn't work out, it's like having your heart torn out and chopped up into little pieces while you watch. It leaves a big hollow space that never really heals.

If I went in the cage, I was going to end up eaten alive. That was actually one of my top five ways not to die...

Out last chance is a cat's magic sight. We are doomed.

If you keep a gun in your purse, you get killed, because no woman can find anything in her purse in under twelve minutes. It's a rule.

That kiss was really nice you know before you...bit me, but it was still nice.

was a clear, pale blue like the eyes of a Siberian husky dog. Human beings just didn't have eyes like that.

Anita can speak for herself," Richard said. Jean-Claude's attention flicked back to me. "That is certainly true. But I came to see how the two of you enjoyed the play." "And pigs fly," I said. "You don't believe me?" "Not hardly," I said.

Oh, ma petite, you are growing gargantuan." I looked at him and it was not a friendly look. "Never tease a woman about her weight, Jean-Claude. At least not an American twentieth-century one." He Spread his hands wide. "My deepest apologies." "When you apologize, try not to smile at the same time. It ruins the effect.

I got out my jar of ointment. I knew animators who had special containers for the ointment. Crockery, hand-blown glass, mystical symbols carved into the sides. I used an old Mason jar that had once held Grandma Blake's green beans. Larry fished out a peanut butter jar with the label still on it. Extra-crunchy. Yum-Yum.

That's what you get for telling the truth. Someone calls you a liar. Most people will accept a likely lie to an unlikely truth. In fact, they prefer it.

They be crazier than we are.

It would be nice if you’d stop almost killing me because you don’t want to screw other peo­ple.

Better to assume the worst and be wrong than assume the best and be wrong.

Goddess” he said. Her voice floated to us. Yes, Child.” Will I see you again?” Just her voice now, young and old at the same time. “In the face of every woman you meet

If you can't impress yourself, then no one else really matters.

One of the many reasons that Padma will always be a secondary power on the Council is his belief that all power must be taken, that all power must come through fear. True power comes when others offer it to you and you merely accept it as a gift, not as the spoils of some personal war.

Do you really have the ability to control all types of undead?" Magnus asked. "Can you really make a hundred shoes in a single night?" I asked. Magnus smiled. "Wrong kind of fairie.

Death cures all ills. Well, most of them.

who is the love of my life? Maybe I don't have one. Maybe it's not love at all. But if it's not love, then what is it? I wish I knew.

If you only believe when it's easy, you don't really believe.

You did not bring down two of the royal guard in an unceremonious heap because the woman in the middle tripped.

Marry Gentry Swallowing Darkness (Laurell K. Hamilton):Pick any fairy tale that’s based on older stories, and the heroine of the piece has a miserable, dangerous, nightmarish time of it.

But if anything will turn me off, it's a very practiced approach, as if the man has done it a thousand times before, to a lot of different women. Which always seems to imply that I am no different from all the rest. Not flattering.

The Greeks believed that once there were no male and female, that all souls were one. Then the souls were torn apart, male and female. The Greeks thought that when you found the other half of your soul, your soul mate, that it would be your perfect lover But I think if you find your other half, you would be too much alike to be lovers, but you would still be soul mates.

You awful hard to kill, Anita.' 'There's a first time, Luther, and that's all it takes.

Pity is an emotion that can get you killed. The only thing more dangerous is blind hate, and maybe love.

I wanted to wipe the grin off his face with a fist. I resisted the urge. Who says I have no self-control?

Most women complain that there are no single, straight men left. I’d just like to meet one who’s human.

But we were all young once. It passes, like innocence and a sense of fair play. The only thing left in the end is a good instinct for survival.

Once upon a time wasn't as long ago as it used to be.

People go away and they don't come back.

Graves are for the living, not the dead. It gives us something to concentrate on instead of the fact that our loved one is rotting under the ground.

Nothing is more appealing than a handsome man who is also uncertain of himself.

It was as if the power and loneliness of the vampires' world had combined with the group oriented puppy-pile world of the shapeshifters and made something new.

Is it better to outmonster the monsters or to be quietly devoured?

I worry that when you start quoting Machiavelli to justify your actions, you have ceased to be one of the good guys. No, quoting Nietzsche does that. Machiavelli is just cool.

Regrets are about decisions that you know you should have done different.

Nicky looked down at me with a knowledge on his face that he was holding the monster in his arms. I'd have comforted him, but it would have been all lies.

Some moments are perfect, and then someone comes along and f*cks it up. Ain't it always the way.

Is death such a high price to pay, when you will die anyway?

I know that look, Blake. You are a drowning woman, and the only way out is down the aisle.

It is a very natural human trait to destroy that which frightens us.

I, Anita Blake, scourge of the undead-the human with more vampire kills than any other vampire executioner in the country-was dating a vampire. It was poetically ironic.

Oh, no, a leopard blew up and plastered itself all over everything, but hey, animal print was in this year.

You can never have too much coffee”, I said He turned and smiled at me. “You think so, but the rest of us get a little OD’ed on your level of caffeine.

Mercy will get you killed, but sometimes it's all that makes us human.

If you're dressed for my funeral, it's too casual. If it's just street clothes, then you must be scaring the tourists.

Never criticize, unless you can do a better job.

I smiled at him, as Doyle squeezed my hand and I squeezed back. "Some people are addicted to falling in love, Doctor. Some people love that rush of new emotions, and when that first rush of new love is spent, they move on to the next, thinking the love wasn't real. What I felt in her, and potentially in you, is the love of years. Love that knows that that first rush of freshness isn't the real thing. It's the tip of the iceberg.

If you love someone, truly love them, you should never cause them pain. Never fill their eyes with something so close to grief.

I never said I was consistent.

If I was truly as brave as I thought I was, I'd have let him go. But I loved him, and I wasn't that brave.

Assuming the worst was always safer. And usually truer.

When crime busting is easier than your personal life, something has gone seriously wrong.

You're up to something," I said. He turned, eyes wide, long fingers pressed to his heart. "Moi?" "Yeah, you,

some choices you make with your heart some with your head but when in doubt choose head over heart.... it will keep you alive. -merry gentry

Sometimes the greatest wounds are the ones we try the hardest not to inflict.

A crowd is an elemental thing. A word, a glance, and a crowd becomes a mob.

being physically intimidating didn't keep you from getting your feelings hurt. Everyone's heart is the same size.

Oh, I'll enjoy myself. I want to make sure you enjoy yourself." "Why?" I said. "If you enjoy yourself, then there's a better chance you'll want to be with me again.

One serial killer sends me a human head in a box, and I get all spooked; Go figure.

Would you truly sleep with strangers?" "I don't know, I haven't met the strangers yet.

Pretend I asked, now answer the question...

I will go to my grave seeing the look on your face at the last. Keep it up and you'll go sooner than later.

I know the universe has a sense of irony, and sometimes you get reminded just how sadistic that can be.

He made a small sigh, as he swallowed the first blood, then his mouth closed over my earlobe, mouth working at the wound, tongue coaxing blood from the wound. He pressed his body the length of mine, one hand cupping my turned head, the other playing down the line of my body. Maybe it was just blood, but I never stroked my steak while eating it.

Since you won't give me your names I'll call you Thing One and Thing Two.

So many of us had been armed that there were holsters and weapons scattered among the passed-out bodies like mercenary prizes in a fleshy Cracker Jack box.

It feels like we're in a Harry Potter book talking about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

He laughed, and it raised goose-bumps on my arms. "Oh,ma petite ,ma petite , you are precious." Just what I wanted to hear. "So how are you getting here?" "My private jet." Of course, he had a private jet. "When can you be here?" "I will be there as soon as I can, my impatient flower." "I prefer ma petite to flower.

No 'Good evening, Jean-Claude, how are you doing?' Just down to business. How terribly rude,ma petite ." - Jean-Claude