Dorothy Parker
Even at her most humorous, you could still hear the pain underneath. She was a walking dichotomy—wanting to be wanted just as much as not caring about people hating her, and went against the grain, both as a writer and a person.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr
I took my mom’s copy of Slaughterhouse-five when I was 8 or so and became obsessed, vowing to read it over and over until I understood it. Needless to say, it took a few years. I read everything else much later and it always felt like I was reading something I found hidden in an attic, written by a family member I wished I had—so familiar and safe, and I have no idea why.
Clive Barker
Blood, sex, death, body horror, torment, beauty, pain, vengeance. In each story, he encompasses every circle of hell and every deadly sin.
Vladimir Nabokov
It takes a hell of a writer to almost make you feel sorry for a pedophile. Also, he was a lepidopterist, and that makes me happy.
Charles Bukowski
He seemed like someone with a heart too big for his own good and a tattered, ugly soul, but he told the truth about people and society, and could cut you with his words. If I’d known him, I probably would’ve both hated him and idolized him.
Donna Lynch is a Bram Stoker Award-nominated horror/ dark fiction author & poet, lead singer, lyricist, & cofounder of the band Ego Likeness, and creator of the Garbage Witch line of clothes & accessories. Geography nerd, obsessed with pools, demons, witches, driving, & goats. Lives in Maryland with husband, artist & musician Steven Archer.