When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you.
John DarnielleI was 14 or 15 when I discovered poetry, and I pretty much stopped writing prose until Master of Reality.
John DarnielleThe South actually has a very strong tradition of activism. The civil rights movement came from down here! It was black activists demanding that their voices be heard. People say these are red states. No they're not!
John DarnielleAdulthood is interesting to adults. But I would never want to write about stuff I dont feel everybody can connect to.
John DarnielleI'm finding things out about myself as a person - as a writer - as I write, and so are the people who listen to what I do. But they have this additional aspect of how they take the stuff that I do, and so it broadens the work and it creates this strange connection. It's really a way of strangers communicating through this third thing, which is a body of work. But really, I know it's a clichรฉ to say I write for myself, but I write for myself.
John DarniellePeople always talk about good time rock and roll, Chuck Berry or whatever, like this liberating force for feeling good. But what I need in my life is to be liberated into feeling bad. Not sad. I have plenty of sad. What I need is a place where I can spray anger in sparks like a gnarled piece of electrical cable. Just be mad at stuff and soak in the helplessness.
John Darnielle