The number of people who expected Mrs. Hutchinson to win a Bendix washer would amaze you.

Gossip says she hanged herself from the turret on the tower, but when you have a house like Hill House with a tower and a turret, gossip would hardly allow you to hang yourself anywhere else.

All cat stories start with this statement: "My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...

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

[L]et my reader who is puzzled by my awkward explanations close his eyes for no more than two minutes, and see if he does not find himself suddenly not a compact human being at all, but only a consciousness on a sea of sound and touch . . .

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.