Top 350 Shirley Jackson Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “Brandy, anyone? My passion for spirits – ” “No.” Theodora giggled wildly. “Not that pun,” she said.”

— Shirley Jackson

202. “Although she would sooner have given up thinking than eating, she resented being pushed into depriving herself of either.”

— Shirley Jackson

203. “I personally preferred to chance the arsenic,” Uncle Julian said.”

— Shirley Jackson

204. “Seit dem Tod ihrer Mutter war ihre Schwester der einzige Mensch auf der Welt, den sie aufrichtig hasste.”

— Shirley Jackson

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

— Shirley Jackson

206. “All the millions of things we possessed as a family were inside the house, but, inexorably, there came one shocking moment when we discovered that the house was full.”

— Shirley Jackson

207. “And there were birds singing, and – oh, I wish I could remember, and make you all see how lovely it was! – and flowers, and everything was so gentle and warm and light; it is going to be so beautiful.”

— Shirley Jackson

208. “I have been found wanting, Natalie thought; I have made myself unnacceptable and am not worthy.”

— Shirley Jackson

209. “You all want the whole world to be changed so you will be different. But I don’t suppose people get changed any by just a new world. And anyway that world isn’t any more real than this one.”

— Shirley Jackson

210. “Luke,” she asked, going slowly for fear of ridicule, “why do people want to talk to each other? I mean, what are the things people always want to find out about other people?”

— Shirley Jackson

211. “She forced herself to sit up primly on the edge of the marble bench, repressing firmly the nausea she felt at its warm pressure, and she smoothed the black linen of her dress across her lap, and tucked in her hair, which had somehow come loose, and crossed her ankles decently, and took her black-edged handkerchief from her bosom and dried her eyes and wiped away the dampness and grime from her face. Now, she thought; I may go mad, but at least I look like a lady.”

— Shirley Jackson

212. “I think we are only afraid of ourselves,” the doctor said slowly. “No,” Luke said. “Of seeing ourselves clearly and without disguise.”

— Shirley Jackson

213. “The reassuring bulk of the college buildings showed ahead of her, and she looked fondly up at them and smiled. As she had never been before, she was now alone, and grown-up, and powerful, and not at all afraid.”

— Shirley Jackson

214. “It was going to happen sooner or later, in any case,” Eleanor said. “But of course no matter when it happened it was going to be my fault.”

— Shirley Jackson

215. “In any case,” the doctor said, “I will not sleep for an hour or so yet; at my age an hour’s reading before bedtime is essential, and I wisely brought Pamela with me. If any of you has trouble sleeping, I will read aloud to you. I never yet knew anyone who could not fall asleep with Richardson being read aloud to him.”

— Shirley Jackson

216. “I think that an atmosphere like this one can find out the flaws and faults and weaknesses in all of us, and break us apart in a matter of days. We have only one defense, and that is running away.”

— Shirley Jackson

217. “Passing through the outskirts of the city, she thought, it’s as though everything were traveling so fast that the solid stuff couldn’t stand it and were going to pieces under the strain, cornices blowing off and windows caving in. She knew she was afraid to say it truly, afraid to face the knowledge that it was a voluntary neck-breaking speed, a deliberate swirling faster and faster to end in destruction.”

— Shirley Jackson

218. “I decided that I was going to fewer student parties after I ripped part of the sleeve out of my black dress helping a freshman climb a fence. By the end of the first semester, what I wanted to do most in the world was invite a few of my husband’s students over for tea and drop them down the well.”

— Shirley Jackson

219. “Sing before breakfast you’ll cry ’before night.”

— Shirley Jackson

220. “I will relinquish my possession of this self of mine, abdicate, give over willingly what I never wanted at all; whatever it wants of me it can have.”

— Shirley Jackson

221. “I am home, I am home, she thought; now to climb.”

— Shirley Jackson

222. “Hugh Crain,” Theodora said, “you were a dirty old man, and you made a dirty old house and if you can still hear me from anywhere I would like to tell you to your face that I genuinely hope you will spend eternity in that foul horrible picture and never stop burning for a minute.”

— Shirley Jackson

223. “I don’t stay after I set out dinner,” Mrs. Dudley went on. “Not after it begins to get dark. I leave before dark comes.”

— Shirley Jackson

224. “Change layover the stairs and the kitchen and the garden like fog.”

— Shirley Jackson

225. “No ghost in all the long histories of ghosts has ever hurt anyone physically. The only damage done is by the victim to himself.”

— Shirley Jackson

226. “Das ist zu viel, dachte sie, ich leiste Verzicht auf dieses Selbst, danke ab, gebe freiwillig ab, was ich sowieso nie haben wollte; was es auch von mir will, kann es haben.”

— Shirley Jackson

227. “She could not remember ever being truly happy in her adult life; her years with her mother had been built up devotedly around small guilts and small reproaches, constant weariness, and unending despair.”

— Shirley Jackson

228. “I wished they were all dead and I was walking on their bodies.”

— Shirley Jackson

229. “Foosball is a vile game... for vile people.” – Shirley Jackson, 1953.”

— Shirley Jackson

230. “Perhaps it has us now, this house, perhaps it will not let us go.”

— Shirley Jackson

231. “Because this was a time and a land where enchantments were swiftly made and broken she wanted to linger over her lunch, knowing that Hill House always waited for her at the end of her day.”

— Shirley Jackson

232. “I am walking on their bodies, I thought, we are having lunch in the garden and Uncle Julian is wearing his shawl.”

— Shirley Jackson

233. “The weather falls more gently on some places than on others, the world looks down more paternally on some people. Some spots are proverbially warm, and keep, through falling snow, their untarnished reputations as summer resorts; some people are automatically above suspicion.”

— Shirley Jackson

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

— Shirley Jackson

235. “I’m sure I’ve been here before,” Eleanor said. “In a book of fairy tales, perhaps.”

— Shirley Jackson

236. “Eleanor, watching, thought wryly that it might sometimes be oppressive to be for long around one so immediately in tune, so perceptive, as Theodora.”

— Shirley Jackson

237. “It is unholy because it is heretic. It is foul. It is abominable to need something so badly that you cannot picture living without it. It is a contradiction to the condition of mankind.”

— Shirley Jackson

238. “If you don’t like my peaches, don’t shake my tree.”

— Shirley Jackson

239. “No one ever remembers just a bad thing, they remember all around it, all that happened before it and after it, and of course, she told herself consolingly, one bad thing is probably enough.”

— Shirley Jackson

240. “The Amanita phalloides... holds three different poisons. There is amanitin, which works slowly and is most potent. There is phalloidin, which acts at once, and there is phallin, which dissolves red corpuscles, although it is the least potent. The first symptoms do not appear until seven to twelve hours after eating, in some cases not before twenty-four or even forty hours. The symptoms begin with violent stomach pains, cold sweat, vomiting-.”

— Shirley Jackson

241. “None of these things bothered us excessively; we have always been a family that carries bewilderment like a banner, and odd new confusions do not actually seem to be any more bewildering than the ones we invent for ourselves; moreover, in each of these cases it was easier to believe that nothing had happened, or that it was of no importance anyway.”

— Shirley Jackson

242. “I am going to put death in all their food and watch them die.” Constance stirred, and the leaves rustled. “The way you did before?” she asked. It had never been spoken of between us, not once in six years. “Yes,” I said after a minute, “the way I did before.”

— Shirley Jackson

243. “The trees around and overhead were so thick that it was always dry inside and on Sunday morning I lay there with Jonas, listening to his stories. All cat stories start with the statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this,” and I lay with my head close to Jonas and listened.”

— Shirley Jackson

244. “Good morning – through in a minute – I’ll leave the tub filled for you.”

— Shirley Jackson

245. “No, she thought, you are not going to catch me so cheaply; I do not understand words and will not accept them in trade for my feelings; this man is a parrot.”

— Shirley Jackson

246. “Fancy was a liar. She had been with Aunt Fanny and dared not admit to running away. She had not been frightened, but she enjoyed teasing people weaker than herself. Not a servant, or an animal, or any child in the village near the house, would willingly go near her.”

— Shirley Jackson

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

— Shirley Jackson

248. “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

249. “Well, Eleanor thought, staring after the taxi, there’s one person, anyway, who will be praying for me. One person anyway.”

— Shirley Jackson

250. “God God,” Eleanor said, flinging herself out of bed and across the room to stand shuddering in a corner, “God God – whose hand was I holding?”

— Shirley Jackson