Quotes from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“A pretty sight, a lady with a book.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“On the moon we wore feathers in our hair, and rubies on our hands. On the moon we had gold spoons.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I can't help it when people are frightened," says Merricat. "I always want to frighten them more.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I remember that I stood on the library steps holding my books and looking for a minute at the soft hinted green in the branches against the sky and wishing, as I always did, that I could walk home across the sky instead of through the village.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“We eat the year away. We eat the spring and the summer and the fall. We wait for something to grow and then we eat it.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“All cat stories start with this statement: "My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Fate intervened. Some of us, that day, she led inexorably through the gates of death. Some of us, innocent and unsuspecting, took, unwillingly, that one last step to oblivion. Some of us took very little sugar.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“All our land was enriched with my treasures buried in it, thickly inhabited just below the surface with my marbles and my teeth and my colored stones, all perhaps turned to jewels by now, held together under the ground in a powerful taut web which never loosened, but held fast to guard us.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Poor strangers, they have so much to be afraid of.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“You will be wondering about that sugar bowl, I imagine, is it still in use? You are wondering, has it been cleaned? You may very well ask, was it thoroughly washed?”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“There had not been this many words sounded in our house for a long time, and it was going to take a while to clean them out.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I shall weave a suit of leaves. At once. With acorns for buttons.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I wonder if I could eat a child if I had the chance.'
'I doubt if I could cook one,' said Constance.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“On the moon we have everything. Lettuce, and pumpkin pie and Amanita phalloides. We have cat-furred plants and horses dancing with their wings. All the locks are solid and tight, and there are no ghosts.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Oh Constance, we are so happy.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“We were going to the long field which today looked like an ocean, although I had never seen an ocean; the grass was moving in the breeze and the cloud shadows passed back and forth and the trees in the distance moved.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I really think I shall commence chapter forty-four," he said, patting his hands together. "I shall commence, I think, with a slight exaggeration and go on from there into an outright lie. Constance, my dear?"
"Yes, Uncle Julian?"
"I am going to say that my wife was a beautiful woman.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Today my winged horse is coming and I am carrying you off to the moon and on the moon we will eat rose petals.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I was wondering about my eyes; one of my eyes–-the left–-saw everything golden and yellow and orange, and the other eye saw shades of blue and grey and green; perhaps one eye was for daylight and the other was for night. 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, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“I would have to find something else to bury here and I wished it could be Charles.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“We moved together very slowly toward the house, trying to understand its ugliness and ruin and shame.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“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. There was no change coming, I thought here, only spring; I was wrong to be so frightened. The days would get warmer, and Uncle Julian would sit in the sun, and Constance would laugh when she worked in the garden, and it would always be the same. Jonas went on and on ("And then we sang! And then we sang!") and the leaves moved overhead and it would always be the same.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep? Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“When Jim Donell thought of something to say he said it as often and in as many ways as possible, perhaps because he had very few ideas and had to wring each one dry.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Wear your boots if you wander today”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from We Have Always Lived in the Castle

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