Quotes by Shirley Jackson

About Shirley Jackson:

Shirley Hardie Jackson was an American author. She was a popular writer in her time, and her work has received increased attention from literary critics in recent years. She influenced Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I have always been interested in witchcraft and superstition, but have never had much traffic with ghosts, so I began asking people everywhere what they thought about such things, and I began to find out that there was one common factor - most people...

Shirley Jackson

In the country of the story the writer is king.

Shirley Jackson

Materializations are often best produced in rooms where there are books. I cannot think of any time when materialization was in any way hampered by the presence of books.

Shirley Jackson

Fear," the doctor said, "is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway.

Shirley Jackson

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

Shirley Jackson

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.

Shirley Jackson

Hill House, she thought, You're as hard to get into as heaven.

Shirley Jackson

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. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so fo...

Shirley Jackson

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

Shirley Jackson

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

Shirley Jackson

I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

Shirley Jackson

...Don't be surprised, and I say it darkly, do not be surprised if you lose your Luke in this cause; perhaps Mrs. Dudley has not yet had her own mid morning snack, and she is perfectly capable of a filet de Luke á la meuniére, or perhaps dieppoise,...

Shirley Jackson

She had never driven far alone before. The notion of dividing her lovely journey into miles and hours was silly; she saw it [...] as a passage of moments, each one new, carrying her along with them, taking her down a path of incredible novelty to a n...

Shirley Jackson

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 stil...

Shirley Jackson

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

Shirley Jackson

We believed optimistically that Laurie was a reformed character. I told my husband, on the last day of Laurie's confinement, that actually one good scare like that could probably mark a child for life, and my husband pointed out that kids frequently ...

Shirley Jackson

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.

Shirley Jackson

People who are all alone have every right to be friends with one another. ("The Honeymoon Of Mrs. Smith" - Version 1)

Shirley Jackson

He hated the blue platter his mother served from, and the salt and pepper shakers, which were glass with red tops, and he hated the silverware designed in flowers, some pieces scratched almost beyond recognition. He even hated the round table and the...

Shirley Jackson

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....

Shirley Jackson

Author Bio

  • NameShirley Jackson
  • Descriptionnovelist, short story writer
  • BornDecember 14, 1916
  • DiedSeptember 8, 1965
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWoman Of Letters; Journalist; Novelist
  • AwardsEdgar Award