Quotes from Jennifer McMahon

Some people say, 'Write what you know.' My thing is, 'Write what scares you.'

My mother taught me to believe in ghosts: to use a Ouija board, have seances, and leave little offerings out for those who have passed.

One exercise I always do when I'm getting to know a character is ask her to tell me her secrets. Sit down with a pen and paper, and start with, 'I never told anybody...' and go from there, writing in the voice of your character.

I do believe in ghosts, or at least in some kind of persistent spiritual echoes of the past in certain places.

I have a friend who calls me the queen of the nightmares because I've always had really bad nightmares. I keep a notebook by the side of my bed, so I'll wake up in the night from a bad dream, and my heart's pounding, and I'm really scared, but I write it down, and sometimes I get ideas for books that way.

I've never done a sequel - so far, there have been too many new stories and characters calling my name.

I have a pretty open mind about supernatural stuff - I do believe that there's more to this world than what meets the eye.

Poetry taught me a great deal about language and images, but when it came to plotting, I was stumped. It's been very much a learn-by-doing thing for me.

Sometimes we're at the mercy of other people. We don't even understand the power they have over us until it's too late.

There are angels walking among us.

Sometimes I wonder if you remember things the way they really were.

I guess you never know what other people are thinking, do you?

Reggie was so sick of it all. The things people knew (or thought they knew) about other people. Maybe everyone had a secret life, not just Vera. She suddenly hated all of it. She wanted people to be as see-through as fish tanks, no more murkiness, no misdirection. No lies and bullshit. No secret rooms or lies about being the star of some goddamn play that didn't even exist.

We can't change things by wishing. Only by doing. It's our actions, Tara, not our thoughts.

She closed her eyes. Said the four most comforting words she knew: "Once upon a time." An incantation.

Think of me,' she said because it seemed like something a girl in a fairy tale might say. Think of me. Remember me. Love me. Turn me into a story you tell again and again. The sister who was good as gold and became a queen.

The people who are stuck between here and there, waiting. It reminds me of winter, how everything is all pale and cold and full of nothing, and all you can do is wait for spring.

I don't believe places can be haunted. Only people, and not in a supernatural way. People are only haunted by their pasts.

Fear does that to a person: shrinks them down, makes them small and weak.

In the water, dark and deep where she waits, fast asleep All alone, pale and cold, don't wake her up, or she'll catch hold Her soothing voice, so soft and low is the last thing you'll ever know Four simple words whispered in your ear, a gentle wind only you can hear: Come swimming with me

For everyone out there who has the good sense to be a little afraid when swimming in deep, dark water. You tell yourself there's nothing down there, but there is. There always is.

It's not the gun you should be scared of—it's the crazy man with the gun

Some people are made stronger by loss. Others are broken by it.

How will we know if it's changing us?" I asked. "Maybe we won't. The biggest changes happen so slowly you hardly notice them.