There is so much dark pleasure to be found in interviews with Thomas Ligotti, many of which have now been collected in a handsome hardbound volume for those among you who still maintain an interest in such quaint artifacts. I think my favorite interview bears the title “Literature Is Entertainment or It Is Nothing,” the title of which not only succinctly states a correct and useful thesis, but also contains such gems as this.

Why else would someone succumb to the attractions of romantic love more than once? Didn’t they learn their lesson the first time or the tenth time or the twentieth time?

The realm of romantic love is a diarchy in the iron grip of its rulers Frustration and Heartbreak, a fact that almost no one ever learns, no matter how obvious it is.