I assume then, that you have no real faith in the fondness any of the rest of us may feel for you?' 'None,' said Mrs. Halloran.

It is not possible, I frequently think, to walk down the street as fast as you can and kick yourself at the same time.

I loathe writing autobiographical material because if it's dull no-one should have to read it anyway, and if it's interesting I should be using it for a story.

It was as though the people needed the ugliness of the village, and fed on it. The houses and the stores seemed to have been set up in contemptuous haste to provide shelter for the drab and the unpleasant.

...remember the metallic sound and taste of all of it. And the outrage.

When they were silent for a moment the quiet weight of the house pressed down from all around them.

I clear breakfast at ten o'clock. I set on lunch at one. Dinner I set on at six. It's ten o'clock.

Say Morg--you mind if I use the rest of your bath salts? There's only a little left.

Duty and conscience were, for Theodora, attributes which belonged properly to Girl Scouts.

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.

The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain,” said Lord Byron,

I disliked having a fork pointed at me and I disliked the sound of the voice never stopping; I wished he would put food on the fork and put it into his mouth and strangle himself.

I decided that I would choose three powerful words, words of strong protection, and so long as these great words were never spoken aloud no change would come.

Now, I have nothing against the public school system as it is presently organized, once you allow the humor of its basic assumption about how it is possible to teach things to children....

I suppose the mothers of most twelve-year-old boys live with the uneasy conviction that their sons are embarked upon a secret life of crime.

Everything is worse...if you think something is looking at you.

People,” the doctor said sadly, “are always so anxious to get things out into the open where they can put a name to them, even a meaningless name, so long as it has something of a scientific ring.

We started out making men in about the state of mind which I suppose created them in the first place -- we had run out of kinds of women, and had to think of something else.

Fear and guilt are sisters;

My dear, how can I make you perceive that there is no danger where there is nothing but love and understanding?

When we had neatened the upstairs rooms we came downstairs together, carrying our dustcloths and the broom and dustpan and mop like a pair of witches walking home.

Sister's gone to school," I said to Sally. "Ah," said Sally. "And will she come home again?

What are you reading, my dear? A pretty sight, a lady with a book.

It is only with the eyes open that a corporeal form returns, and assembles itself firmly around the hard core of sight.