Quotes from Shirley Jackson

If everyone in the world saw different colors from different eyes there might be a great many new colors still to be invented.

Fear is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield it or we fight it, but we cannot meet at half way.

Around her the trees and wild flowers, with that oddly courteous air of natural things suddenly interrupted in their pressing occupations of growing and dying, turned toward her with attention, as though, dull and imperceptive as she was, it was still necessary for them to be gentle to a creation so unfortunate as not to be rooted in the ground, forced to go from one place to another, heart-breakingly mobile. Idly

and whatever walked there, walked alone.

I never yet knew anyone who could not fall asleep with Richardson being read aloud to him.

Poor Dr. Montague, Eleanor thought, standing aside to let the doctor take his wife into the dining room; he is so uncomfortable; I wonder how long she is going to stay. "I wonder how long she is going to stay?" Theodora whispered in her ear. "Maybe her suitcase is filled with ectoplasm," Eleanor said hopefully. "And how long will you be able to stay?" Dr. Montague asked, sitting

I think we are only afraid of ourselves," the doctor said slowly. "No," Luke said. "Of seeing ourselves clearly and without disguise." "Of knowing what we really want

Aprì la valigia sul letto altissimo e, sfilandosi le rigide scarpe da città con un senso di liberazione, cominciò a disfare i bagagli; nei recessi della sua mente c'era la convinzione profondamente femminile che il modo migliore per dar sollievo a una mente turbata è mettersi un paio di scarpe comode.

If you are not ready in three minutes I will come in and drown you. I want my breakfast.

La comida viene de la tierra y no podemos permitir que se quede allí y se pudra; hay que hacer algo con ella.

She probably watches every move we make, anyway; it's probably part of what she agreed to." "Agreed to with whom, I wonder? Count Dracula?" "You think he lives in Hill House?" "I think he spends all his week ends here; I swear I saw bats in the woodwork

Todas las mujeres de la familia Blackwood habían recogido la comida que daba la tierra y la habían conservado, y los tarros de intensos colores con embutidos y verduras y mermeladas granate, ámbar y verde oscuro estaban uno al lado de los otros y allí se quedarían para siempre, como un poema compuesto por las mujeres de la familia Blackwood.

A courtesan, a pilgrim, a princess, and a bullfighter.

She shivered and though, the words coming freely into her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once.

Someday, she said evilly, rubbing her hands against her eyes, I am going to get my eyes open all the time and then I will eat you and Lizzie both.

The house was vile. She shivered and thought, the words coming freely into her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once. 2 NO HUMAN eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which

Los domingos por la mañana examinaba mis amuletos, la caja con dólares de plata que había enterrado junto al arroyo, y la muñeca enterrada en el campo, y el libro clavado en un árbol del pinar; mientras todo permaneciera donde yo lo había dejado, nada podía sucedernos

Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed by some, to dream.

Eleanor waved back, sitting in joyful loneliness to finish her coffee while the gay stream tumbled along below her.

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even marks and katydids are supposed, bu some, to dream.

In a period of international crisis, the doctor said gently, when you find, for instance, cultural patterns rapidly disintergrating... International crisis, Mrs. Arnold said. Patterns. She began to cry quietly. [...] Reality, she said, and went out.

Morgan had been, for a very long time, the most remarkable object in her own landscape, and anything stranger than herself was, to her mind, either an obvious sham, or non-existent.

Little Natalie, never rest until you have uncovered your essential self. Remember that. Somewhere, deep inside you, hidden by all sorts of fears and worries and petty little thoughts, is a clean pure being made of radiant colors.