Clive Barker Quotes

Powerful Clive Barker for Daily Growth

About Clive Barker

Clive Barker, born on October 5, 1952, in Liverpool, England, is a renowned British author, film director, artist, and illustrator, best known for his dark fantasies that blur the lines between reality and nightmare. Barker's interest in art and storytelling was evident from an early age. He spent hours drawing and creating stories, which later translated into his written works. His influences were diverse, ranging from H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe to the surrealist painters Salvador Dalí and René Magritte. In 1984, Barker published his first short story collection, "Books of Blood," which showcased his unique blend of horror, fantasy, and erotica. The success of this series led to a movie adaptation in 1987. However, it was the publication of "The Hellbound Heart" in 1986 that brought Barker international acclaim. This novella served as the basis for the cult horror film "Hellraiser," directed by Barker himself in 1987. Barker's most significant work, arguably, is the 'Abarat' series, a epic fantasy saga that spans across multiple novels, beginning with "Abarat" in 2004. This complex narrative, filled with richly imagined worlds and captivating characters, showcases Barker's storytelling prowess. Throughout his career, Barker has pushed boundaries, exploring themes of sexuality, identity, and the human condition through a lens of the fantastical. His work continues to resonate with readers and inspire new generations of authors and artists.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Imagination is the new reality."

This quote by Clive Barker suggests that imagination, which often springs from our creativity and imagination, can shape or create a "new reality" - one that may not exist physically but can be experienced through stories, art, or ideas. In essence, he's proposing that our collective power to imagine, dream, and envision possibilities transcends the boundaries of the physical world, thereby reshaping the way we perceive and engage with our reality.

"Art is a weapon against chaos."

Clive Barker's statement, "Art is a weapon against chaos," underscores the idea that artistic expression can provide order and meaning in an otherwise chaotic world. By creating art, individuals have the power to shape reality according to their vision, imposing structure and logic on the raw, untamed elements of existence. In this sense, art serves as a tool for combating the inherent disorder and unpredictability that surround us, ultimately bringing a semblance of order, beauty, and understanding to our lives.

"We're all living ghost stories, one day at a time."

Clive Barker's quote suggests that life itself is an ongoing series of personal narratives filled with mystery, the unknown, and echoes from our past - much like a traditional ghost story. Each day presents us with experiences that linger, change us, or are forgotten, leaving traces behind. In essence, we carry our own unique "ghost stories" as we journey through life, shaped by memories, fears, joys, and regrets. Our experiences can haunt us, teach us, or inspire us, making us who we are today while shaping our tomorrow.

"The art of life comes down to a few moving parts: love, work, and play."

Clive Barker's quote highlights that the fundamental components of a fulfilling life consist of three primary aspects: love, work, and play. Love refers to personal relationships and connections with others, which foster emotional growth and happiness. Work represents one's professional endeavors and commitments, providing purpose, structure, and financial stability. Play signifies leisure activities that stimulate creativity, relaxation, and enjoyment, contributing to overall well-being and a balanced lifestyle. In essence, this quote underscores the importance of nurturing relationships, finding meaningful work, and making time for fun and recreation in life's journey.

"The only way to survive as an artist is to see further than others can see. To invent, explore, create, and also to understand."

This quote by Clive Barker suggests that artists must not only possess the ability to imagine beyond current boundaries (invent, explore, create), but also have a deep understanding of their craft and the world around them. This duality allows them to innovate while remaining rooted in the principles of good art, ultimately setting themselves apart from others. In other words, surviving as an artist requires both visionary creativity and intellectual acumen.

There was supposedly no point showing 'Nightbreed' to critics because the people who see these movies don't read reviews, in brackets, even if they can read at all! Immediately it was disqualified from serious criticism. Therefore, it had to be sold to the lowest common denominator.

- Clive Barker

Supposedly, Disqualified, Reviews

We actually say in 'Nightbreed,' 'God is an astronaut, Oz is over the rainbow, and Midian is where the monsters go.' There's a lovely sense in which there's a simple thesis being played out here. These are things you understand as a child out on the play yard.

- Clive Barker

Play, Here, Yard, Thesis

'The Scarlet Gospels' does, by general consensus, seem to mark a new high - or low, depending on your point of view - in its excessiveness, in its extremities.

- Clive Barker

New, Point Of View, Your, Gospels

It is great good health to believe, as the Hindus do, that there are 33 million gods and goddesses in the world. It is great good health to want to understand one's dreams. It is great good health to desire the ambiguous and paradoxical.

- Clive Barker

Desire, Gods, Paradoxical, Hindus

I'm a gay man, living an out life for a long time, and it's tiring and anger-making to hear people continue to spit out the same old dreary cliches about the fact that gay men are doing something unnatural, and there'll be a price to pay when the Rapture happens.

- Clive Barker

Doing, Fact, About, Hear People

Be regular and orderly in your life, that you may be violent and original in your work.

- Clive Barker

Original, May, Violent, Orderly

When I was looking for financing while making 'Hellraiser,' I wish there was a studio like Project Greenlight Digital Studios behind me.

- Clive Barker

Digital, Behind, Studio, Financing

As for theatre, there's ups and downs to everything. Theatre is ephemeral. But that is part of its charm because you can always say the production was better than it was.

- Clive Barker

Always, Production, Downs, Ups

Nothing ever begins. There is no first moment; no single word or place from which this or any other story springs.

- Clive Barker

Other, Springs, Which, Single Word

Horror fiction shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.

- Clive Barker

Horror, Purely, Illusory, Oblivion

Neil Gaiman is a star. He constructs stories like some demented cook might make a wedding cake, building layer upon layer, including all kinds of sweet and sour in the mix.

- Clive Barker

Some, Stories, Including, Constructs

I'm a great dog fanatic. My own dog died a little while ago and I take it very personally when things die - it's a major offence.

- Clive Barker

Die, My Own, Very, Offence

One of the things I'm trying to do over and over again in my books is create new mythologies, create new ways to understand the complexity of the world. I think what mythology does is impress upon chaotic experience the patterns, hierarchies and shapes which allow us to interpret the chaos and make fresh sense of it.

- Clive Barker

Complexity, I Think, Allow, Interpret

I love the idea of stories being about great beginnings and terrible endings.

- Clive Barker

Love, Stories, I Love, Endings

I was always aware of the ticking clock of time, always. I was very aware that I had a lot to do, and I wanted to do those things in the best possible way that I could and probably the biggest way I possibly could.

- Clive Barker

Always, Very, Ticking, Possibly

For a writer, and particularly a writer of my genre, which is the fantastical, I think that it's to my advantage to feel remote from and disconnected from the world of deal making.

- Clive Barker

Think, Deal, Which, Disconnected

I think I'm less and less labelled a 'horror writer'. The books tend not to go on horror shelves any more, and when they do, I tend to take them off.

- Clive Barker

Think, Horror, I Think, Shelves

Some people think that horror films are some sort of second class filmmaking, and the only way to bypass that thinking is being proud of the fact that we do it.

- Clive Barker

Think, Some, Films, Horror Films

I say 'spectacle' rather than 'story' because in the end, it isn't the intricacies of narrative that draw us to horror films. When it's there, I'm grateful for the director's skill at telling an exquisitely nuanced tale filled with psychological insight, but it is the spectacles that I take home with me.

- Clive Barker

Telling, Psychological, Horror Films

'Underworld' was my first filmed book. I think there are about seven of my lines in it.

- Clive Barker

Book, Think, I Think, Underworld

I remember when I watched 'Hellraiser' with my mother. She cried when she saw my name in the opening credits, and I had to tell her that that was the happiest she was going to be for the next two hours.

- Clive Barker

I Remember, Next, Hours, Credits

I used to think that you'd open the door, and there was Narnia. Increasingly, I think it's all around us.

- Clive Barker

Door, Think, Increasingly, Open

Interestingly, although the 'Books of Blood' were greeted with cries of righteous horror - and smirks - I didn't think of them as being particularly excessive. God knows what I did think was excessive at the time, but I didn't think they were.

- Clive Barker

Think, Horror, Cries, Excessive

Teaming up with Adaptive Studios and Shudder is a wonderful opportunity to support emerging filmmakers in finding the new horror icon. This is also a great chance to scare and entertain audiences at the same time.

- Clive Barker

New, Studios, Entertain, Emerging

I'm feeling much better than I have been for many years. You know, I... there have been a couple of days when I thought maybe I wasn't going to make it to the evening. I don't feel that anymore.

- Clive Barker

Thought, Been, Couple, Evening

My imagination is my polestar; I steer by that.

- Clive Barker

Imagination, Steer

You can plan to be brave - it's even better if you just try to be brave.

- Clive Barker

Brave, Better, Even, Be Brave

I have the normal complement of anxieties, neuroses, psychoses and whatever else - but I'm absolutely nothing special.

- Clive Barker

Normal, Absolutely Nothing, Complement

All I've ever wanted to do is darken the day and brighten the night.

- Clive Barker

Night, Wanted, Ever, Brighten

I wanted to fold into the 'Hellraiser' narrative something about the guy - the Frenchman Lemarchand - who made the mysterious box, which raises Pinhead. I figured, 'Well, what would have happened to him?' He might well have been taken to Devil's Island, and I thought that would be a pretty cool place to start the movie.

- Clive Barker

Thought, Movie, Been, Raises

The 'Hellraiser' situation was pretty darn wonderful and very unusual. Nor did I understand how radically unusual the thesis of 'Nightbreed' was.

- Clive Barker

Understand, Pretty, Very, Unusual

I certainly knew from an early age... how to tell stories; how to create pictures in other people's heads.

- Clive Barker

Other, Stories, Certainly, Early Age

I'm not the expert on the great gameplay. I come in for the character design, monsters, atmosphere. I'm not the technician.

- Clive Barker

Design, Expert, Atmosphere, Technician

There's a lot of places where the image of a cube as a thing of power is pertinent. I don't know why that is. I don't have any mythic explanation for it, but it seems to work for people.

- Clive Barker

Work, Image, Mythic, Pertinent

My grandfather was a ship's cook, and he came back from the Far East very often with strange little toys. One of the things he brought back was a puzzle box, which obsessed me for a long time.

- Clive Barker

Very, Brought, Far East, Puzzle

'Hellraiser' was what 'Hellraiser' was. It was a $900k movie, and there wasn't anything I would have done differently. But 'Nightbreed' was taken away from me. It was thought that its meaning wasn't... Its meaning didn't chime with the producers.

- Clive Barker

Thought, Movie, Away, Producers

I don't take accusations of selling out lightly.

- Clive Barker

Selling, Take, Lightly, Accusation

There's a lot of art and comics and movies being paid homage to by game designers.

- Clive Barker

Art, Movies, Lot, Homage

It is the creature that stands at the center of horror movies, not those who have made it their business to bring the beast down. We're all the same.

- Clive Barker

Business, Horror, Made, Creature

I love meeting people who've read my books. The prime reason to be on the planet is to make things I can show to other people: paintings, books, movies.

- Clive Barker

Love, Reason, Prime, Meeting

I want to be able to still surprise myself, even shock myself, whether it be sexual content, whether it be about the theological content, whatever. I want to be able to knock myself sideways. Otherwise, what a waste of a life that would be.

- Clive Barker

Surprise, Waste, Otherwise, Sexual

I don't feel there's any reason to apologise for having a wicked imagination. I think it's important as a maker of fantasy and of horror.

- Clive Barker

Think, Reason, I Think, Wicked

Gather experience... Look at what you should not look at. A feeling of anxiety is the sure and certain evidence that you should do this.

- Clive Barker

Anxiety, Evidence, Sure, Gather

Pinhead needed to say goodbye. He had a farewell speech to make. It was truly as simple as that.

- Clive Barker

Goodbye, Speech, Needed, Farewell

I have a vision of the world as being a lot darker, perhaps, than I did when I was 31 and wrote the 'Books of Blood'.

- Clive Barker

Blood, Being, Wrote, Darker

I've got deeper journeys to take. Metaphysical journeys. Journeys to see Christ. Shaman journeys. It's what I've been elected by God to do.

- Clive Barker

Metaphysical, Been, Journeys, Deeper

I don't like PG-13 horror movies. I think they're a contradiction in terms.

- Clive Barker

Movies, Think, I Think, Contradiction

The thought of making a movie in which the monsters were the good guys was just financial suicide.

- Clive Barker

Thought, Making, Which, Good Guys

We live in the Age of the Next New Thing; we're assaulted day and night by tastemakers telling us what the next hit will be, the next style, the next cool.

- Clive Barker

New, Next, Telling, Day And Night

If there was a horror movie showing somewhere in Liverpool between 1967 and 1975, I saw it.

- Clive Barker

Movie, Horror, Saw, Horror Movie

What I tried to do is deliver movies that have worked for me more than once.

- Clive Barker

Movies, Tried, Worked, I Tried

Nobody cares for the product I, and a host of other horror directors, make.

- Clive Barker

Product, Other, Cares, Host

Though I respect hugely the effort and the care and the beauty of games, I want to be working with people who want to create the 'War & Peace' of games, the 'Citizen Kane' of games, and not just be warming up George Romero.

- Clive Barker

Citizen, Hugely, Though, George

Hell is reimagined by every generation. We have to reinvent the worst so that we can reinvent the best.

- Clive Barker

Generation, Reinvent, Worst, Hell Is

Books should make somebody look at how they feel, be honest with themselves.

- Clive Barker

How, Themselves, Books, Honest

I firmly believe that a story is only as good as the villain.

- Clive Barker

Believe, Only, Firmly, Villain

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