Quotes by Victor LaValle

About Victor LaValle:

Victor LaValle is an American author who was raised in the Flushing and Rosedale neighborhoods of Queens, New York. He is the author of a short-story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus and three novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine and The Devil in Silver. LaValle writes fiction primarily, though he has also written essays and book reviews for GQ, Essence Magazine, The Fader, and The Washington Post, among others.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If you haven't caused a scene in a psych unit, it's just because you haven't been inside long enough.

Victor LaValle

That’s the funny thing,” she said. “Men always want to die for something. For someone. I can see the appeal. You do it once and it’s done. No more worrying, not knowing, about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I know you all think it sounds...

Victor LaValle

Before September 11, the skinny, jittery black guy made security think one thing: drug mule. But after the attacks, security only cared about bombs. So it was the Arab guys, the Puerto Ricans and Indians, even white men, that got searched. I was too ...

Victor LaValle

Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.

Victor LaValle

Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.

Victor LaValle

Don’t focus on the mishaps; consider the pleasures instead.

Victor LaValle

The ancient Egyptians believed the god Anubis met each of us on the other side, and that he stood before a great scale on which our hearts were set. There each was weighed, tested, for its worth. Was this the heart I wanted measured?

Victor LaValle

Human beings are no damn good,” he said. “We are even worse than animals. We like ...” He trailed off, cleared his throat, but his voice hardly reached a whisper. “We like monsters,” he said.

Victor LaValle

I’m always looking for the monster. Not even just in horror. I want them in everything. Just give me the monsters. Logical conclusions don’t satisfy. Monsters satisfy, absolutely.

Victor LaValle

The success of any society must be judged by the life of its worst off. No other calculation will do.

Victor LaValle

Taken together the Internet reads like the grandest character-driven novel humanity has ever known. Not much plot though.

Victor LaValle

The person you are (in total, at that moment in time) is what creates the story you're writing. It's infused in every piece of punctuation, in the plot, in the most minor character who crosses the page. It's all your voice.

Victor LaValle

Author Bio

  • NameVictor LaValle
  • DescriptionAmerican writer
  • BornFebruary 3, 1972
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship