American author (1960- )
He was afraid, but also fascinated, and as he watched, the formlessness took on a shape, folding in on itself and wobbling crazily from side to side until it resembled nothing so much as a sideshow fat man with multiple arms and a thick tubelike tail.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Haunted
I always thought the appeal for vampires are the same as religion, the desire to avoid death and live forever.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"The Summoning: An Interview with Bentley Little", Giants of the Genre
In real life, good people die all the time and a**holes can live long and happy lives. It's a crapshoot.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"Bentley Little: The Elusive Dark Scribe Speaks", Dark Scribe Magazine
Like most authors, I'm a raging egomaniac. I know that about myself. And I know that, if I had internet access, I would waste countless hours looking up things about myself, writing fake posts about how great I am and arguing with people who don't like my work. It saves me a lot of time and frustration to just stay out of the loop.
BENTLEY LITTLE
interview, The Horror Zine
Real life was messier than fiction, and in it you didn't always have time to do or say the right things.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Resort
Most people are middle class. Most people do wish their lives were better than they are. And I think by making my main characters ordinary, average guys, it helps readers identify with their problems. It also helps ground the supernatural events that follow in a recognizable reality and perhaps gives some of my wilder scenarios a little verisimilitude.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"Bentley Little: The Elusive Dark Scribe Speaks", Dark Scribe Magazine
I think the internet is a great marketing tool--but marketing is not my job. I'm a writer. My job is to write novels.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"The Summoning: An Interview with Bentley Little", Giants of the Genre
I think readers appreciate those of us who stay in the trenches and fight the good fight even when times get tough. I know that I, personally, lost respect for writers who, when there was a downturn in the market, started shouting from the rooftops that they wrote thrillers and suspense novels rather than horror. As far as I'm concerned, those wussboys should sever all ties with the horror community if that's the way they feel and get out of the way so real horror writers can do their work.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"Bentley Little: The Elusive Dark Scribe Speaks", Dark Scribe Magazine
Life is short. Eternity is long.
BENTLEY LITTLE
His Father's Son
Names have power. In certain cultures, just speaking a man's name gives you mastery over him.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Policy
A light wind blew through here that carried with it scents of sadness and loss, not recognizable odors but smells that corresponded to nothing, chimerical fragrances able to evoke melancholic memories.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Vanishing
Hell, he thought, was not a cave filled with fire and brimstone--it was an insurance office.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Policy
I write horror because I enjoy it. I'm endlessly fascinated by the supernatural, by death, by darkness. And, to be honest, I don't have much choice. This is the way my mind works.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"The Summoning: An Interview with Bentley Little", Giants of the Genre
Hope was a dangerous emotion that more often than not led men into foolishness and peril, made them risk their lives and lose their wives and part with fortunes that they never recovered.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Policy
Real life ... it was an ambiguous world, where actions sometimes had no meaning, where chaos reigned and no one was allowed to see the big picture, only their small portion of it.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Policy
An enigma? That's not a bad persona to have. I should probably shut up and let the mystery continue! It's good for my career.
BENTLEY LITTLE
interview, The Horror Zine
There's always been a need for horror fiction, though--ghost stories have been a staple of every human society since the beginning of recorded literature--and while commercially the field may have its ups and downs, it will never go away. Hell, look at the Bible: gods, devils, ghosts, witches, giants, resurrections. That's one big horror story. And it's the most popular book on the planet.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"Bentley Little: The Elusive Dark Scribe Speaks", Dark Scribe Magazine
Murder is an inherently evil act, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how convincing the rationalizations.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Ignored
He was uncomfortable with people who used the word blessed as a part of their everyday speech. The implication was that God was intervening in the minutiae of their lives, hanging around and helping them with their jobs or children or household chores as though He had nothing better to do. Maybe it was true... Maybe that was why there were wars and murders and earthquakes and hurricanes. God was too busy helping real estate agents find new listings to deal with those other issues.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Haunted
I write what I want to write. Period. I don't write novels-for-hire using media tie-in characters, I don't write suspense novels or thrillers. I write horror. And if no one wants to buy my books, I'll just keep writing them until they do sell--and get a job at Taco Bell in the meantime.
BENTLEY LITTLE
"The Summoning: An Interview with Bentley Little", Giants of the Genre