Anton Szandor LaVey Quotes

Quotes by and about Anton Szandor LaVey

(Continued from his main entry on the site.)

LaVey: "Definition of Good and Evil: Good is what you like. Evil is what you don't like."

LaVey: "Heaven must be populated with some rather strange creatures if all they lived for was to go to a place where they can strum harps for eternity."

LaVey: "My definition of evil [is] what doesn't feel good, what pains you [and] what you find unpleasant. Good is what feels good."

LaVey: "[My philosophy is] just Ayn Rand's philosophy, with ceremony and ritual added."

Marilyn Manson: "[LaVey talked] about a sexual relationship he had with Marilyn Monroe that began when he was the organist in a club where she was a stripper. In our conversation, he planted the seed that his association with her made her career flower. Taking credit for such things was part of LaVey's style, but he never did it arrogantly. It was always done naturally, as if it were a well-known fact."

Marilyn Manson: "Although I was suspicious about some of LaVey's claims, his rhetoric and confidence were convincing."

Marilyn Manson: "To some people [his act would] seem corny, to others, it would be terrifying."

Marilyn Manson: "All the power LaVey wielded he gained through fear - the public's fear of the word 'Satan.' By telling people he was a Satanist, LaVey became Satan in their eyes."

Marilyn Manson: "I was surprised by how sad I felt [when he died], because he had actually become a father figure to me."

Eugene V. Gallagher: "[LaVey] by his own admission, isn't much of a writer."

[His daughter:] "Writing did not come easy to my [father] and he often suffered from extremely inhibiting writer's block. ... I believe he tended to 'borrow' the writings of other authors."

[His daughter:] "My mother also synthesized material from many [old] newsletters to round out 'The Satanic Bible' ... and even added some of her own writing and much editing [to] the manuscript."

[His daughter:] "Essentially, he is a coward and could not possibly deal with the hostility that we have had to encounter in publicly defending our beliefs."

[His daughter:] "I have never seen any evidence that he honestly believes in the force whom he has for so long exploited as a 'good gimmick."

[His daughter:] "[My mother made] uncredited contributions to 'The Satanic Bible' and 'The Satanic Rituals.'"

LaVey: "I'm one hell of a liar. Most of my adult life, I've been accused of being a charlatan, a phony, an imposter. ... It's true. I lie constantly, incessantly."

Zeena LaVey and Nikolas Schreck: "LaVey's former publicist, Edward Webber, claims LaVey admitted he never knew Monroe."