Riley Sager > Quotes

“Never show fear, Kit-Kat,” he whispered. “They can tell if you’re scared—and that’s when they sting.”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“The world is often brutal and cruel, and it only seems to get harder as time marches forward. The pressures and dangers kids face today are so much worse than when I was that age.”
― Riley Sager, Middle of the Night

“take our world and improve upon it,” Charlie says. “Movies are magical that way. Everything is magnified. The colors are brighter. The shadows are darker. The action more violent and the love affairs more passionate. People break out into song. Or they used to. The emotions—love, hate, fear, laughter—are all bigger. And the people! All those beautiful faces in full close-up. So beautiful it’s hard to look away.”
― Riley Sager, Survive the Night

“to himself. He claimed otherwise, of course. A peculiar trait among most self-important men is the need to try to hide their self-importance”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“We all go a little mad sometimes.”
― Riley Sager, Survive the Night

“Every house has a story to tell and a secret to share.”
― Riley Sager, Home Before Dark

“I go to my father's desk, getting uncomfortable flashbacks to when Allie and I emptied my father's apartment a week after his death. It was rough. The entire place smelled like him - a soothing combo of wool, aftershave and old books. Every item dropped into a cardboard box felt as though a part of his existence was being locked away where no one could see it. Every tattered cardigan. Each worn-edged book. I was erasing my father piece by piece, and it gutted me.”
― Riley Sager, Home Before Dark

“Because they take our world and improve upon it,” Charlie says. “Movies are magical that way. Everything is magnified. The colors are brighter. The shadows are darker. The action more violent and the love affairs more passionate. People break out into song. Or they used to. The emotions—love, hate, fear, laughter—are all bigger. And the people! All those beautiful faces in full close-up. So beautiful it’s hard to look away.”
― Riley Sager, Survive the Night

“When the land and water and sky conspire to take your breath away.”
― Riley Sager, The House Across the Lake

“It’s our lot in life, Kit-Kat,” he told me. “People like us toil. The rich bastards running everything make sure of that.”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“Several scenarios pop into my head, starting with the worst, because that’s my default mode.”
― Riley Sager, Middle of the Night

“Everything is a game, Em. Whether you know it or not. Which means that sometimes a lie is more than just a lie. Sometimes it’s the only way to win.”
― Riley Sager, The Last Time I Lied

“By the front door is a table normally used for mail and car keys. On it sits a single sheet of paper bearing six typed lines. Holding my breath, I pick it up and begin to read. At sixty-nine, Virginia Hope Wrote her nurse this little note Thank you, dear, for saving me Now it’s time to let you be I take my leave, walking tall Knowing that I fooled them all”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“You want to know if I’m as evil as everyone says I am. The answer is no. And yes.”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“It must have happened right after I left for work. She either tripped or lost her balance. A freak accident.”
― Riley Sager, The House Across the Lake

“was friendly but friendless. Approachable yet purposefully aloof. I saw no point in getting too close with anyone.”
― Riley Sager, Final Girls

“He was, in many ways, a terrific dad, and not just because he spoiled me rotten. He was attentive and kind. He never talked down to me, like my mother did. And he never, ever underestimated me.”
― Riley Sager, Home Before Dark

“That is, after all, what I’m being paid to do. Live there. Occupy the place. Breathe life into it, as Leslie put it during that surreal interview.”
― Riley Sager, Lock Every Door

“Second, I’m not writing this so you’ll feel sorry for me. I neither want nor need your pity. I’m also not doing it to prove my innocence. That’s for others to decide, if and when I ever finish this.”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“In Johnny, he noticed a sensitivity most teenage boys lack. Unfortunately, those who are the most sensitive are sometimes also the most troubled. Which Johnny was. When he overdosed, it was a shock to all of us.”
― Riley Sager, Middle of the Night

“...make a handprint on the wall. That way you'll always be apart of this place.”
― Riley Sager, Home Before Dark

“I’m mad at everything and nothing. I’m mad at life.”
― Riley Sager, Final Girls

“Wealthy we were. Happy? Not so much. And the house, though opulent, reflected that. It’s a cold place. An unwelcoming place. I know you can feel it. There’s little comfort to be found here. And all I wanted to do was meet”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“But fiction can be an escape, which is why we need idealized versions of New York City. It balances out the crowded, gritty, heartbreaking real thing.”
― Riley Sager, Lock Every Door

“Hates them with the fiery heat of a thousand suns.”
― Riley Sager, With a Vengeance

“Mr. Gurlain chose me because Lenora Hope is the one patient nobody—not even the police—will mind if I kill.”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“Dissociative amnesia” is the official diagnosis. More commonly known as repressed memory syndrome. Basically, what I witnessed was too horrific for my fragile mind to hold on to. So I mentally cut it out. A self-performed lobotomy.”
― Riley Sager, Final Girls

“I don’t even think you’re aware you’re doing it. But it’s obvious what’s happening. Your mother took her own life. How big of a role you played in that is still up for debate.”
― Riley Sager, The Only One Left

“I know, that’s what all deaths feel like. The person is there and then they’re not and you have to adjust to life without them.”
― Riley Sager, Survive the Night

“This time a faint cold spot blunts the heat of her gaze. Curiosity, left unarticulated.”
― Riley Sager, Final Girls