Resistance to change is proportional to how much the future might be altered by any given act.

Listening to it was like having a mud-slimed piece of silk drawn lightly back and forth across her face.

The ghost story movie that scared me the most was The Changeling with George C. Scott. I think that's sometimes overlooked, but it's a wonderful piece of work.

My feeling of the whole genre, of the terror tale, is this: The best thing that you can do for the readers in this field is to terrify them. It is something that is intellectual, it happens in your mind.

When you're five and you hurt, you make a big noise in the world. At ten you whimper. But by the time you make fifteen you begin to eat the poisoned apples that grow on your own inner tree of pain.

People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.

The only [working] ritual is making tea. I use the loose leaves and drink it by the gallon.