quotations about monsters
It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful.
H. P. LOVECRAFT
"The Call of Cthulhu"
Monsters cannot be announced. One cannot say: 'Here are our monsters,' without immediately turning the monsters into pets.
JACQUES DERRIDA
"Some Statements and Truisms about Neologisms, Newisms, Postisms, Parasitisms, and other small Seismisms", The States of Theory
I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words.
ALFRED DE VIGNY
Stello
Murderers are not monsters, they're men. And that's the most frightening thing about them.
ALICE SEBOLD
The Lovely Bones
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Othello
The monsters are conundrums in God's creation;
Their contrary features defy a clear classification.
To all those monsters, certain things are common:
They have peculiar features that cause confusion;
They possess magical powers, and, what is more,
For each of those monsters there is always a hero
Who would either kill or disable it sooner or later.
DHARANIDHAR SAHU
Heroes and Monsters
Calling someone a monster does not make him more guilty; it makes him less so by classing him with beasts and devils.
MARY MCCARTHY
"The Hue and Cry", The Writing on the Wall
Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan, and in the horrible features of those same monsters the power of the creator is revealed.
UMBERTO ECO
The Name of the Rose
The real world is where the monsters are.
RICK RIORDAN
The Lightning Thief
What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.
WERNER HERZOG
attributed, Ethics and Medievalism
The female monster is certainly no deadlier than the male, but she is different. She is a sucking, strangling, trapping creature.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
interview, The Telegraph, March 22, 1968
Monsters don't get happy endings.
PAULA STOKES
Ferocious
Although monsters are often cast opposite to organizations, throughout this book I have been trying to show that the relationship between monsters and organizations is deeply ambiguous. Sure, monsters disrupt boundaries of biological, moral and social organization, yet organizations continue to kill and exploit monsters. But rather than maintaining the binary opposition between monsters and organizations, this throws doubt on who the real monsters are.
T. THANEM
The Monstrous Organization
Our souls may be consumed by shadows, but that doesn't mean we have to behave as monsters.
EMM COLE
The Short Life of Sparrows
But these words people threw around--humans, monsters, heroes, villains--to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.
V. E. SCHWAB
Vicious