Literary Birthday – 3 February – Victor LaValle

Happy Birthday, Victor LaValle, born 3 February 1972.

Victor LaValle Quotes

1. 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.
2. Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.
3. 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.
4. The best writing deadlines are poverty and death.
5. There are really only two ways to react to the extraordinary. The first is to ponder the grand purpose until all the fun is sucked away, the second is to enjoy it.

Victor LaValle is an American author. He has written the short story collection Slapboxing with Jesus, four novels, and two novellas. He is also the creator and writer of two comic books Victor LaValle’s DESTROYER and EVE. He has adapted his novel, The Devil In Silver, as a limited series for AMC. It will air later in 2026. He has received many awards including the World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, Bram Stoker Award, Whiting Writers’ Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. LaValle is an associate professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts. Follow him on Facebook.

Source for quotes
Source for image: Henry Söderlund, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_photoshoot_at_Worldcon_75,_Helsinki,_before_the_Hugo_Awards_%E2%80%93_Victor_LaValle.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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