Mark Linkous uses a wealth of imagery in his lyrics. Sometimes he borrows phrases and images from other's literary works. In an interview for RipItUp he said, "A lot of times I'm far more inspired by literature than music. Like I'll pick a Henry Miller line and just make a whole song out of it." Other authors he's a fan of include Pinckney Benedict, Cormac McCarthy, and Breece D'J Pancake. Of borrowing from other writers and lyricists Mark says, "It's sort of in honour of my heroes in a way." This is a list of lyrical references spotted or read about in interviews. Some of them may be just coincidence, whilst some are obviously deliberate. Thanks to the contributors, and let me know if you find anything else that should be included.
"...a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse..." - 'Homecoming Queen'

From William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) tragedy Richard III (c. 1595), Act 5 Scene 4 Line 7.
"...rambling on magnetic fields..." - 'Homecoming Queen'

The Magnetic Fields is the music of songwriter - producer - instrumentalist Stephin Merritt, a lo-fi recording pioneer.
"...what once grew straight, and tall t'wards the sun, absorbing back down, to dirt like a sponge... - 'Homecoming Queen'

See John Milton's (1608 - 74) Paradise Lost (1667), IV: 270, and IX: 420-440, where Eve is compared to a flower, and then tries to support falling flowers, foreshadowing her own fall to the ground. This area of the song fits into Milton's theological belief that Adam and Eve are flowers that must support each other, and they fall to tend the earth just as Sparklehorse is absorbed back into the dirt, the place where Man came from in Christian theology (see Genesis, Ch. 2).
'Weird Sisters'

The Weird Sisters is the collective name for the three witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
"...there's a bad moon on the rise..." - 'Weird Sisters'

Sonic Youth released an album in 1984 called Bad Moon Rising, and some years before that Creedence Clearwater Revival sung a song with the same name.
"...dragging pianos..." - 'Spirit Ditch'

In the surrealist movie Un Chien Andalou, written by Salvador Dali and Louis Bounuel, there is a scene where a male character drags two pianos over his shoulders. The pianos actually have two dead horses (or donkeys) with their cheeks cut off, revealing their teeth, on them.
"...a burnt out basement..." - 'Spirit Ditch'

Neil Young's song After The Goldrush, from the album of the same name, contains the line: "I was lyin' in a burned out basement with the full moon in my eyes".
"...I'd walk to hell and back..." - 'Saturday'

A Possible reference to Dante's Inferno, where Dante is led by Virgil to Hell and back.
"...captain howdy's here..." - 'Hammering the Cramps'

The name 'Captain Howdy' was used in the movie The Exorcist. Before the little girl Regan was possessed completely, she spoke of the man in her head who talked to her on the Ouija board, calling him 'Captain Howdy'.
"...I got a heart of darkness..." - 'Heart of Darkness'

This is most likely taken from the title of Joseph Conrad's 1902 novella Heart Of Darkness, a story considering war, slavery, and colonialism in the Belgian Congo. The novella's themes were more recently appropriated by Francis Ford Coppola for his 1979 film Apocalypse Now, which moved the action to the jungles of Vietnam.
"...the beautiful ones are always crazy, she's whispering like morticia now..." - 'Someday I Will Treat You Good'

A reference to the beautiful but bizarre Morticia Addams from TV's The Addams Family? Then again, maybe he's saying 'mortician' . . .
"...it's a sad and beautiful world..." - 'Sad and Beautiful World'

This line is borrowed from a Walt Whitman poem and the song was inspired by a viewing of Jim Jarmusch's 1986 film Down By Law, which stars Tom Waits in his first movie role, as well as John Lurie and Roberto Benigni.
"...the flowers of evil..." - 'Gasoline Horseys'

The French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867) published Les Fleurs du Mal in 1857. In a famous trial, Les Fleurs du Mal was found obscence and blasphemous, and Baudelaire was fined. Some readers recognised his intentions and artistry, but for many generations the book was synomynous with morbidity and depravity.
"...we poor old dogs of god..." - 'Gasoline Horseys'

This lyric is taken from the title of Pinckney Benedict's 1993 novel The Dogs Of God. 'Dogs of God' is the name of the plane in the novel.
"...yeah, oh we're, in the dry..." - 'In The Dry'

'In The Dry' is the title of one of Breece D'J Pancake's short stories, which are collected in The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake.
"...here come the painbirds..." - 'Painbirds'

One of the songs on Tom Wait's 1983 album Swordfishtrombone (the title that inspired the title 'Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot') is called 'Rainbirds'.
'Maria's Little Elbows'

A nod in the direction of Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted album, on which is a song called 'Chelsey's Little Wrists'.
"...she says I've really come to hate my body, and all the things that it requires in this world..." - 'Maria's Little Elbows'

Lou Reed's song Candy Says, contains the line: 'Candy says, 'I've come to hate my body, and all that it requires in this world'. The song has also been covered by Blind Melon. Reputedly, the woman/man behind the song was Candy Darling, a gender-bending actor/actress who appeared in Andy Warhol's 1968 film 'Flesh'. See Swingin' Chicks for more info on his/her career. He/She also rates a mention in Lou Reed's 1972 classic 'Take a Walk on the Wild Side' where he sings, "Candy came from out on the island, in the back room she was everybody's darlin'...".
"...and it will get you in the bathroom of a Texaco..." - 'Maria's Little Elbows'

In the song 'Gun Street Girl', from the album Rain Dogs, Tom Waits sings: "He dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Texaco".
"...it's a hard world, for little things..." - 'Ghost of his Smile'

A line from the movie Night of the Hunter, starring Robert Mitchum (who one of the cats is named after). The old lady who looks after the two children in the movie says the line after seeing an owl pounce on a rabbit. Filmsite says "The Night of the Hunter (1955) is a truly compelling, and frightening classic masterpiece thriller, and the only film ever directed by British actor Charles Laughton. The disturbing, complex story was based on the popular, best-selling 1953 Depression-era novel of the same name by Davis Grubb. The American gothic, Biblical tale of greed, innocence, and corruption was adapted for the screen by famed writer-author James Agee (and Laughton, but without credit). Although one of the greatest American films of all time, the imaginatively-chilling, experimental, sophisticated work was idiosyncratic, film noirish, avante garde, dream-like expressionistic and strange, and was a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release".
"...bear me away on your snowy wings..." - 'Bloody Hands' (unreleased)

From Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain. In the book, it's a line from 'Angel Band', which is one of Stobrod's songs. See page 448 in the trade paperback edition.

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