Raising Demons Quotes

“We started out making men in about the state of mind which I suppose created them in the first place -- we had run out of kinds of women, and had to think of something else.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“We started out making men in about the state of mind which I suppose created them in the first place—we had run out of kinds of women, and had to think of something else.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“I decided that I was going to fewer student parties after I ripped part of the sleeve out of my black dress helping a freshman climb a fence. By the end of the first semester, what I wanted to do most in the world was invite a few of my husband’s students over for tea and drop them down the well.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“In the study she nodded to my husband, turned completely around once, and then remarked that we seemed to be making no practical use of the space in our house. “This room would be much larger,” she said, “if you took out all those books.”
Mrs. Ferrier thought the master bedroom should have faced west, and she barely put her head inside the smaller bedrooms. “They would be much larger,” I told her, “if we took out the beds.”
Mrs. Ferrier fixed me with her cold eye. “If you took out the beds where would you sleep?” she wanted to know, and I followed her meekly downstairs.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“And the Christmas when Laurie was covered with spots,” Jannie said. “That was before you were born,” she told Sally. “But I know it was because they gave him a paintbox and they thought that was why he was spotty,” Sally said.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“You’re crying like a fish,”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“I took Sally and Barry to the zoo, and Barry and Dikidiki stood and looked silently at the polar bear and the polar bear stood and looked silently at Barry and Dikidiki. Sally was perplexed because the animals were not in cages when so many of the people in the city were.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“Barry was head down in the toy box, feet waving cheerfully.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“In another few weeks, I thought, the leaves would be coming down again. School, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the long spring days, and then another summer. I could hear cheering from the ball field. The years go by so quickly, I thought, rising; he used to be so small.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“Sally took over from Jannie an enormous accumulation of fairy tales, Uncle Wiggly stories, Bobbsey Twins books, and Barnaby.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“My husband, who used to read at night when he was a boy with a flashlight under the covers, said that inadequate light was harmful to the eyes. I, who used to read at night when I was a girl by the street light outside my window, said that little girls who stayed awake reading at night were very apt to be sleepy in school the next day. Sally agreed soberly, as befitted one newly admitted to an esoteric society, and went back upstairs with Ozma of Oz.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“It was brightly wrapped, and the card on it read, “To Daddy from Jannie.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “What is it?”
“Not so loud,” Jannie said, whispering. “It’s a potholder.”
“A potholder?”
“Yes, we learned how to make potholders in Starlight 4-H Club. And this is for Sally.”
“A potholder?”
“Yes, and this is for Laurie, and this is for Barry.”
“A potholder for Barry?”
“Yes, because in the mornings when his cereal’s too hot. Oh, golly.” Hastily she snatched the bottom package from the box and put it under her pillow. “You weren’t supposed to see that,” she said.
“I didn’t see it,” I told her. “I never even noticed it.”
“Good,” she said, “because that’s a secret, that one. I won’t even tell you who it’s for.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“I took all the overshoes and skates and football helmets out of the hall closet and put them into a carton and put the carton in the hall by the front door. I took all the things off the stairs and put them into another carton, which I stacked in the hall next to the first carton. I was wondering what to put in the third carton when I was interrupted by Jannie to say that Ninki had just had her kittens on one of the comfortable chairs in the study and that my husband was sitting in the other comfortable chair and wanted to know what to do.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“We bought the big white house, at last, by merely signing our names on a piece of paper. Mr. Gore and Mr. Andrews down at the bank arranged the financial transference with an almost invisible maneuver of figures on a card. When my husband asked if we could borrow our money right back again and use the house as security, everybody laughed.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons