Matthew Quick Quotes

I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

Don't cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself.

In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some monied corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in the mask and robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody. But through every clause and part of speech of the right book I meet the eyes of the most determined men; his force and terror inundate every word: the commas and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble,--can go far and live long.

I used to be angry all the time and at everybody. I would get really violent.

I'm tired of all the angry stuff out there.

I've always had that feeling for the dark side, for the anger and the hate-rock. The music is just the way I deal with it.

I have a bit of a temper.

I grew up with lots of anger, frustration, and violence in my heart.

Cormac McCarthy is my favorite author in the world. I love him so much. There's one book that informs me more than The Road - it's called Suttree. That book is a huge influence on me. I'm not smart enough to emulate him, but he inspires me. He never infiltrates my writing directly. He writes incredibly intelligently about people that are marginalized.

I think people feel very comfortable reviewing the idea of me, as opposed to what I've actually written. Most of the time, when people write about one of my books, they're really just writing about what they think I may or may not represent, as sort of this abstract entity. Is that unfair? Not really. If I put myself in this position where I'm going to kind of weave elements of memoir into almost everything, well, I suppose that's going to happen.

My stuff is direct. Critics have compared my writing style with boxing all the way back to 1978 when my first book of essays appeared: it was compared to Muhammad Ali's style.

The heat made people crazy. They woke from their damp bedsheets and went in search of a glass of water, surprised to find that when their vision cleared, they were holding instead the gun they kept hidden in the bookcase.

I started out of course with Hemingway when I learned how to write. Until I realized Hemingway doesn't have a sense of humor. He never has anything funny in his stories.

Take your hands off her, Sinclair told the guy behind me, Or they'll write books about what I'll do to you.

So you try to think of someone else you're mad at, and the unavoidable answer pops into your little warped brain: everyone.

Dieting makes me want to murder everyone around me.

Why don't you pass the gun around and give everyone a shot.

They said I would never write this book. Well, f**k ’em – ’cos here it is. All I have to do now is remember something... Bollocks. I can’t remember anything.

I'll put a bullet through my own brain. Let alone wait for stark to do it. Your sister will drive me to it, Howard. No offense.

When we think of cruelty, we must try to remember the stupidity, the envy, the frustration from which it has arisen.

Great, just great. The only thing to make him a worse asshole would be to kick a puppy.’ (Nathan)

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

What an indulgence it would be, to just blow off my head, all my mean spirits disappearing with a gun blast, like blowing a seedy dandelion apart.

Franz Kafka is an idea person. His books begin and end in ideas. Ideas have always been important to me in my writing. To the point that I have to be careful that they don't take over.

I think TV remotes should have a button that allows you to kill the person on the screen.