Quotes from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham

Mark McLaughlin ·  220 pages

Rating: (35 votes)


“That book is filthy. Wicked. Dangerous. Yet it feels so comforting to own it.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“No, that watch doubles as a high-power flame-thrower and a bidet.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“THE SLITHERING QUIVER OF THE RIVER LIZARD'S TWISTED LIVER-BLISTERS In the city of Phlemuria, three miles west of Ulthar in the Elder Dreamlands, folks had a saying: the god of Fate is no more than a capricious old pig-herder made cranky by an embarrassing rash.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“THAT IS NOT DEAD WHICH CAN ETERNAL LIE /AND WITH STRANGE AEONS, EVEN DEATH MAY LIVE AND LET DIE”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“Reginald’s furnishings, I noted, were solid oak. Oak! Now there was a wood you could trust. I noticed something odd about his bookcase—something that caused a small but sharp bell of warning to ring in my mind. Most of the volumes on its shelves were quite old, and bound in rotting human skin. Finally I noticed the thing that had set off my inner alarm: the bookends were mismatched. One was a human skull and the other was a kitschy little plastic owl. Certainly plastic has no place in the decor of a gentleman’s study.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham



“My hands shivered like twin albino bats in an Antarctic ice-cave, assuming such caves served as lodging for such bats. I’m not really sure. They’d have to be pretty hardy bats. What would they eat?”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“1. Dark Lord of the Screaming Abyss 2. Protector of the Night-Gaunts 3. Messenger of the Crypt Gods 4. Vile Master of the Blood-Soaked Torments 5. Father of the Black Scorpions 6. Uncle of the Flesh-Eating Hawks 7. Second-Cousin of the Accursed Pharaoh with Pubic Dandruff 8. Niles Lathotep 9. The Killjoy of Kadath 10. Discount Abdul, the Persian Carpet King—Half-Off This Week Only 11. Keeper of the Sacred Camel-Toes 12. He Who Doth Swing Both Ways in Darkness 13. Minty Belasco 14. Big Jake”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“What’s that you say, girl? A foamy-mouthed kitty bit your ass and now you’ve gone mondo batshit?”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“The thing looked like an especially unsavory cross between a mangy hound-dog, a Tasmanian devil, and a scruffy, drug-addled, middle-aged British rock star.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“I happened to run into Anton at the Arkham Public Library just a few days later. I was walking down a shadowy hallway when he came bustling out of the Forbidden, Unspeakably Dangerous, Never-To-Be-Checked-Out-By-Anyone Section with a notepad in his hand”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham



“I only hope you are never tempted to venture into the library’s Forbidden, Unspeakably Dangerous, Never-To-Be-Checked-Out-By-Anyone Section to peruse our secret copy of that most shocking and insanity-inducing of ancient tomes, typeset at a point-size convenient to those with impaired vision—the Large-Print Necronomicon!”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“If what’s behind that door is so terrible, shouldn’t we carry a machete or two? A kitchen knife? An especially sturdy cocktail umbrella?” “There is no weapon on Earth one could wield against such terror!” he moaned. “Oh, I see. Then we should just go in unarmed. Well, fine. Lead the way.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“And at 10:23 p.m. Central Time, a cornfield in Buttercup, Iowa split open and It emerged: that selfsame deity that the Pre-Atlantean, Post-Lemurian Serpent Priests addressed by Seven-Thousand-and-Twelve Sacred Names (Number Eleven translating to “Whatever It Is, We Wish It Would Just Leave Us Alone”); that lugubrious critter known to the ancient Aztecs as He-Who-Drips-Sweat-All-Over-Our-Nice-Clean-Temple, to whom they sacrificed the lymph nodes of their enemies after they’d given the hearts to gods they actually liked.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“Miss Tuppenceworth, W.’s pretty blonde secretary, looked out the window of her office, which served as antechamber to her superior’s sanctum sanctorum. “Why is it that whenever H.P. shows up, the sky is suddenly filled with multi-colored silhouettes of shapely women flying about? One can see outlines of guns among the female forms, and hear music filled with saxophones and trumpets. And there’s this sort of swirly gun-barrel shifting to and fro…Decidedly odd.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


About the author

Mark McLaughlin
Born place: in The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Luckily, the injured had all been triaged in another area, but there was too much smoke in the air to confirm that the others had moved to safety. Wheezing, Wells ran forward, coughing and wiping his eyes with his sleeves as he called out for anyone who needed help. There”
― Kass Morgan, quote from Homecoming


“Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 3: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965


“And remember as in all of us, it is only your capacity for wickedness that makes selflessness possible.”
― Danielle Paige, quote from Yellow Brick War


“Johnny Cash, God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” he says. I can’t help it; I look up at Ike and smirk. “What? You’re not a Cash fan?” He gives me a sad look. “I am,” I whisper. “What?” he groans. “Beautiful and fantastic taste in music! Where were you when I was alive?”
― B.N. Toler, quote from Where One Goes


“Though just a girl, I had ideas about violence. Violence had a horizon, a scent, a color. I'd seen it in books and newsreels, but I didn't truly know it until I saw the effects of it on Zayde, saw him come to our basement home in the ghetto with a red rag over his face, saw Mama go soundless as she bound his nose with the scrap torn from the hem of her nightgown. Pearl held the lamp during this procedure so that Mama could see, but I was shuddering so much that I couldn't assist her. I should be able to say that I saw violence happen to Mama when a guard came to our door with news about the disappearance, but I kept my eyes closed tight the whole time, sealed them shut while Pearl stared straight ahead, and because my sister saw it all, I felt the images secondhand, felt them burn on the backs of my eyelids - I saw the guard's boot glow and furrow itself in Mama's side as she lay on the floor. Pearl was angry that I was not an active witness, and so she forced me to take it all in, and when I begged her to stop subjecting me to such sights, she informed me that I had no say in the matter, because she would never look away, not ever, no matter how much it hurt me, because in looking away, she said, we would lose ourselves so thoroughly that our loss would require another name.”
― Affinity Konar, quote from Mischling


Interesting books

The Journeys of Socrates
(2.5K)
The Journeys of Socr...
by Dan Millman
In One Person
(22.4K)
In One Person
by John Irving
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
(111.9K)
David and Goliath: U...
by Malcolm Gladwell
All Our Yesterdays
(19.2K)
All Our Yesterdays
by Cristin Terrill
Princess in Pink
(30.6K)
Princess in Pink
by Meg Cabot
Possessing the Secret of Joy
(13.1K)
Possessing the Secre...
by Alice Walker

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.