The Haunting of Hill House Quotes

“I must say, John, I never expected to find you all so nervous,” Mrs. Montague said. “I deplore fear in these matters.” She tapped her foot irritably. “You know perfectly well, John, that those who have passed beyond expect to see us happy and smiling; they want to know that we are thinking of them lovingly. The spirits dwelling in this house may be actually suffering because they are aware that you are afraid of them.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“We never know where our courage is coming from.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“I’m sure I’ve been here before,” Eleanor said. “In a book of fairy tales, perhaps.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“Ghosts are real, this much I know. There are things that tie them to a place, very much like they do us. Some remain tethered to a patch of land, a time and date, the spilling of blood, a terrible crime. But there are others...others that hold on to an emotion, a drive, loss, revenge, or love. Those...they never go away.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“Everything is worse,” he said, looking at Eleanor, “if you think something is looking at you.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“I will not forget this one moment in my life, she promised herself,”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“No Human eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which suggests evil in the face of a house, and yet somehow a maniac juxtaposition, a badly turned angle, some chance meeting of roof and sky, turned Hill House into a place of despair, more frightening because the face of Hill House seemed awake, with a watchfulness from the blank windows and a touch of glee in the eyebrow of a cornice. Almost any house, caught unexpectedly or at an odd angle, can turn a deeply humorous look on a watching person; even a mischievous little chimney, or a dormer like a dimple, can catch up a beholder with a sense of fellowship; but a house arrogant and hating, never off guard, can only be evil.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“I never yet knew anyone who could not fall asleep with Richardson being read aloud to him.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“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.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“She meant to savor each turn of her traveling, loving the road and the trees and the houses and the small ugly towns, teasing herself with the notion that she might take it into her head to stop just anywhere and never leave again.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“Now what was here, she wondered, what was here and is gone, or what was going to be here and never came?”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“It's the home I've always dreamed of," Theodora said. "A little hideaway where I can be alone with my thoughts. Particularly if my thoughts happened to be about murder or suicide or-”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“I assure you," the doctor said, "that Hill House will be quiet tonight. There is a pattern to these things, as though psychic phenomena were subject to laws of a very particular sort.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“It was an unpleasant business, like all family quarrels, and as in all family quarrels incredibly harsh and cruel things were said on either side.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“People like answering questions about themselves, she thought; what an odd pleasure it is. I would answer anything right now.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“В тази къща нямаше доброта, тя не бе предназначена за живеене, това не бе къща за хора, ни за обич, ни за надежда.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“За беда от самото начало в този дом се възцарила тъгата.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“No, l'aspetto minaccioso del soprannaturale è che attacca la mente moderna dove è più debole, dove abbiamo rinunciato alla corazza protettiva della superstizione senza sostituirla con una difesa d'altro tipo. Nessuno di noi pensa razionalmente che sia stato un fantasma ad attraversare il giardino ieri notte, eppure di sicuro ieri notte a Hill House stava succedendo qualcosa, e il rifugio istintivo della mente - il dubbio - viene meno. Non possiamo dire: "È stata la mia immaginazione", perché c'erano altre tre persone.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“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.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“Nessun organismo vivente può mantenersi a lungo sano di mente in condizioni di assoluta realtà”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“. . . skeptics, believers, and good croquet players are harder to come by today . . .”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“Don’t do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don’t do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“She wants her cup of stars.” Eleanor”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“They spoke lightly, quickly, and gave one another fast, hidden, little curious glances, each of them wondering what secret terror had been tapped in the others, what changes might show in face or gesture, what unguarded weakness might have opened the way to ruin. “Did”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“I don't like the younger sister,' Theodora said. 'First she stole her sister's lover, and then she tried to steal her sister's dishes.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“o 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”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“it’s quite a hazard, quite a hazard indeed, people knocking you down. Still, it’s a genuine pleasure to find one as willing as you to make up for it. Sometimes the people who knock you down never turn once to look.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“She was well away from the city now, watching for the turning onto Route 39, that magic thread of road Dr. Montague had chosen for her, out of all the roads in the world, to bring her safely to him and to Hill House; no other road could lead her from where she was to where she wanted to be.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“this was a time and a land where enchantments were swiftly made and broken”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“Do you think that woman really means to make us a soufflé? Here is certainly a soufflé dish, and eggs and cheese—”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House