Interview: Clive Barker

This interview is actually from last November. My computer died (and I mean dead - the hard drive failed) in the middle of transcribing it and I had high hopes that the rest of the interview was on my tape recorder (which I finally found and unpacked). But sadly, it was not to be. I figured I'd go ahead and post what I had already transcribed (about 30 minutes worth of an hour and a half conversation). I would like to add that Clive Barker is just really super cool, very friendly, and a wonderful guy. I really enjoyed talking with him.

Here's just a peek:

Kimberly: Well, the next question…do you have any advice for young writers? They often like to look to authors to give them advice.

Clive: Sure, and I look towards them the same way. I mean, I look to Ray Bradbury and the people I adored when I was younger. I definitely sought advice by reading their interviews. I think the thing about the way the world is today is that everything is sort of compartmentalized and unfortunately, people come up to me and I say, you know, “I’m a writer” and they say “What kind of writer are you?” (I say) “Well, I write horror books, and I write some fantasy, and write some books for kids.” “But you can’t do that, you’ve got to be one or the other.” My thing is, take no notice of that. Be as big and as complicated and as rich a writer as you can possibly be. Because I think that the books which will last in people’s imagination won’t be the ones that fit meekly into a compartment. They will be the books…as Melville described Moby Dick, they look like unmade beds. They’re not too weak, they’re not too timid. I always like the raw quality about them and I think that’s something to try and encourage in other writers. Don’t be too polished. Polished is what lounge singers can be. Writers need to have a certain rawness and a certain truth to them. You need to speak from the heart.