Quote

It has long been my belief that in times of great stress, such as a 4-day vacation, the thin veneer of family wears off almost at once, and we are revealed in our true personalities.

Shirley Jackson

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Shirley Jackson
Age: 48 †
Born: 1916
Born: December 14
Died: 1965
Died: September 8
Author
Journalist
Non-Fiction Writer
Novelist
Writer
San Francisco County
California
Shirley Hardie Jackson
Long
Stress
Personality
Almost
Veneer
Belief
Personalities
Times
Wears
Family
Revealed
True
Vacation
Great
Thin

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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.
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February, when the days of winter seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer.
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I can't help it when people are frightened, says Merricat. I always want to frighten them more.
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Now, I have nothing against the public school system as it is presently organized, once you allow the humor of its basic assumption about how it is possible to teach things to children.
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Materializations are often best produced in rooms where there are books. I cannot think of any time when materialization was in any way hampered by the presence of books.
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For plain and fancy worrying, give me a new mother every time.
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It is only with the eyes open that a corporeal form returns, and assembles itself firmly around the hard core of sight.
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Oh Constance, we are so happy.
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I would have to find something else to bury here and I wished it could be Charles.
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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.
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I shall weave a suit of leaves. At once. With acorns for buttons.
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We moved together very slowly toward the house, trying to understand its ugliness and ruin and shame.
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The number of people who expected Mrs. Hutchinson to win a Bendix washer would amaze you.
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I delight in what I fear.
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Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.
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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.
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It watches, he added suddenly. The house. It watches every move you make.
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It was one of those winter days that suddenly dream of spring, when the sky is blue and soft and clear, and the wind has dropped its voice and whispers instead of screaming, and the sun is out and the trees look surprised, and over everything there is the faintest, palest tint of green.
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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.
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