310 Quotes by Shirley Jackson

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

...Eleanor thought, I am the fourth person in thisroom; I am one' of them; I belong.

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

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.

...very lonely and, often, very unhappy, with the poignant misery that comes to lonely people who long to be social and cannot, somehow, step naturally and unselfconsciously into some friendly group

Why do women always look so funny alone at night? she thought. I guess you're so used to seeing them with someone.

On the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.

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.

So long as you write it away regularly nothing can really hurt you.