I'm not so sure that horror should be dismissed as something less than literature.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude.
I don't write that much horror. People tell me my books are scary, but they're not really; I don't go there.
Horror can be contained within a book, given form and meaning. But in life, horror has no more form than it does meaning. Horror just is.
Although I've said a million times that I'm not a horror writer, I do like horror.
The horror genre is vast and full of brilliance. Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Herman Melville, the book of Esther. I'll happily join that list.
People like to pigeonhole. People like to label - not just books and movies, but everything in their life. If people want to call me 'literary horror,' I guess that's fine. What I'm trying to do is be both thrilling and thought-provoking.
I see horror as part of legitimate film. I don't see it as an independent genre that has nothing to do with the rest of cinema.
Horror serves a cathartic role in human society, all throughout the world. It is a way of confronting the darkness, both within and without.
What I see as the particularly exciting prospect for writing horror fiction as we go forward is setting stories in more internal landscapes than external ones, mapping out the mind as the home for scary things instead of the house at the end of the lane or lakeside campground or abandoned amusement park.
I don't like to talk about work in progress, but the novel I'm working on now is definitely not horror.