I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

I came to believe that being a private detective was the work I was meant to do.

I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.

Hill House, she thought, You're as hard to get into as heaven.

Can't you make them stop?' I asked her that day, wondering if there was anything in this woman I could speak to, if she had ever run joyfully over grass, or had watched flowers, or known delight or love.

I never was a person who wanted a handout. I was a cafeteria worker. I'm not too proud to ask the Best Western manager to give me a job. I have cleaned homes.

I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.