Quoted By:
On Lovecraft's changing perspective on writing
>"It is one of Lovecraft's great virtues that he never buckled down to hackwork even in the face of ever-increasing poverty; as he wrote poignantly in 1924, "Writing after all is the essence of whatever is left in my life, and if the ability or opportunity for that goes, I have no further reason for - or mind to endure - the joke of existence."
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On Lovecraft as a literary gentleman
>"He wholeheartedly believed it unsuitable to pursue literature as a profession. As he wrote: "a gentleman doesn't try to become famous, but leaves that to the little parvenu egoists". It's obviously difficult to appreciate the sincerity of this declaration; it might appear to us to be the result of a formidable mass of inhibitions, but it must equally be considered as the strict application of an obsolete code of behaviour, to which Lovecraft adhered with all his might. He always wanted to be seen as a provincial gentleman, studying literature as one of the fine arts, for his own pleasure and that of a few friends, without care for public tastes, fashionable themes, or anything of that sort. Such a person has no place in our societies; he knew this, but he always refused to take account of it. And, ultimately, all that distinguished him from a true 'country gentleman' was that he possessed nothing; but even so, he didn't want to take account of it"
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On Lovecraft's own distinctive Cosmic perspective
>""I could not write about "ordinary people" because I am not in the least interested in them. Without interest there can be no art. Man's relations to man do not captivate my fancy. It is man's relation to the cosmos - to the unknown - which alone arouses in me the spark of creative imagination. The humanocentric pose is impossible to me, for I cannot acquire the primitive myopia which magnifies the earth and ignores the background."
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