American author (1969- )
The people form societies to weave enormous carpets from their shed hair, and these carpets are soft and warm and heavy. The people sleep under these carpets in winter, once they are married, and they marry as many wives and husbands as can sleep together comfortably under one carpet. There is one word, which means all three of these things: marriage, carpet, society. There is no word for war or for travel. The people do not have a word for cannon. There are no cannons. All of the people's artifacts are made of hair and bone and skin. (Can you imagine a cannon made out of hair?) Even their histories are told on tapestries woven out of hair. But there is nothing as beautiful as the marriage carpets.
KELLY LINK
Magic for Beginners
I would like to write a novel, or at least try to write one, although my motives are not entirely pure. For one thing, I get asked about writing novels so much that I feel guilty about never having written one. And although I have no strong desire to write a novel, I would hate not to try. That would just be silly. On the other hand, I hate the idea of slogging through something that turns out to be not good.
KELLY LINK
"Words by Flashlight", Sybil's Garage, June 7, 2006
The beloved may be treacherous, greasy-headed and given to evil habits, or else it can be a man in his late forties who works too much, or it can be an alarm clock.
KELLY LINK
Magic for Beginners
In terms of style, too, I think I've been working with a somewhat limited -- although intentionally limited -- set of tools. So I'm attempting to be a bit looser as I start stories off. To digress. To make interesting mistakes.
KELLY LINK
"Words by Flashlight", Sybil's Garage, June 7, 2006
Having achieved limited success under difficult circumstances (wrong boy, wrong mouth, sticky bus floor, lingering aroma of someone's forgotten banana, two girls--Miranda and Amy--not even bothering to pretend not to watch over the back of the next seat), Clementine felt adequately prepared for the real thing.
KELLY LINK
Pretty Monsters
I don't abandon stories once I've started working on them. Once I sit down and start a story, I'll be damned if I'm going to give up on it. But I do reject most of the ideas for stories that I come up with.
KELLY LINK
"Words by Flashlight", Sybil's Garage, June 7, 2006
Part of you is always traveling faster, always traveling ahead. Even when you are moving, it is never fast enough to satisfy that part of you.
KELLY LINK
Stranger Things Happen
When I'm up for an award, there are usually two or three other things on the ballot that I like better than my own fiction.
KELLY LINK
interview, Apex Magazine, July 2, 2013
I love to be scared. I'm currently reading Colson Whitehead's Zone One, right?--?last night I thought, okay, I'll stop at the next section break and go to sleep. Only the next section break began in an old farmhouse in Northampton. As I was reading the book in an old farmhouse in Northampton, I kept going for a few more pages.
KELLY LINK
interview, Weird Fiction Review, November 2, 2011
Whether or not this story has a happy ending depends, of course, on who is reading it. Whether you are a wolf or a girl.
KELLY LINK
Pretty Monsters
Topiary has always seemed like a good occupation, comparable in some ways to writing short fiction.
KELLY LINK
"Words by Flashlight", Sybil's Garage, June 7, 2006
The world is a dangerous place, full of people who don't trust each other. This is why I am staying up in this tree.
KELLY LINK
Stranger Things Happen
Remember, when you don't know what to do, it never hurts to play Scrabble. It's like reading the I Ching or tea leaves.
KELLY LINK
Pretty Monsters
No wizard has ever made himself useful by magic, or, if they've tried, they've only made matters worse. No wizard ever stopped a war or mended a fence. It's better that they stay in their marshes, out of the way of worldly folk like farmers and soldiers and merchants and kings.
KELLY LINK
Pretty Monsters
There are stories about winter ghosts found tangled like lice in their lovers' hair. Dead people have no hair themselves, which is how they can be recognized in winter. But in summer, the living and dead may pass each other on the street, and no one knows the difference.
KELLY LINK
Magic for Beginners
The Customer isn't always right. Sometimes the customer is an a**hole. That's the first rule of retail.
KELLY LINK
Magic for Beginners
Most of the things that I remember from childhood wouldn't make a particularly good story: rescuing worms during rainstorms, our schnauzer attacking a wheel of cheese when someone dropped it during dinner, my parents tricking us into riding Space Mountain at Disney World (we thought it was an educational people-mover kind of ride), playing Star Wars (I got to marry Harrison Ford and my sister married Luke Skywalker) in first and second grade. On the other hand, we always had lots of interesting babysitters--seminary students and friends of my parents--who told really good ghost stories.
KELLY LINK
"20 Questions With Kelly Link", Strange Horizons, February 28, 2005
Everyone has a bizarre childhood and unusual life experiences, whether they know it or not. There's no such thing as a normal childhood. What's useful in writing weird fiction is learning how to understand and articulate those moments of personal, particular strangeness.
KELLY LINK
interview, Apex Magazine, July 2, 2013
I don't think I'm cut out for a job where you have to look professionally tidy. I prefer working in my pajamas and taking showers after lunch.
KELLY LINK
"Words by Flashlight", Sybil's Garage, June 7, 2006
The zombies were like Canadians, in that they looked enough like real people at first, to fool you.
KELLY LINK
Magic for Beginners