The Crying Child Quotes

“There is something very seductive about being allowed to talk about yourself, by someone who really listens.”
― Barbara Michaels, The Crying Child

“I suppose owning things gives rich people the feeling that they can manipulate human beings as easily as they do inanimate objects.”
― Barbara Michaels, The Crying Child

“But people have the most amazing ability to fight truth, even when it's staring them in the face, if it disagrees with their cherished preconceptions…”
― Barbara Michaels, The Crying Child

“The thing that held me back from complete conviction wasn't logic. it was, as Will had said, the accumulated thought patterns of my whole life. It is very hard to reverse every rational conviction you have ever held, overnight”
― Barbara Michaels, The Crying Child

“Haven't you learned that you don't know Mary - or any other human being any more than they know you? You see the one tenth that shows above the surface. You never see the pressures the cracks, and weaknesses that develop underneath”
― Barbara Michaels, The Crying Child

“I never believed in haunted houses, but I won't deny that every house has its own atmosphere. Some make you feel welcome the moment you walk in the door. Others repel. It's a purely physical thing, of course - a question of proportions and light and repetition of forms that soothe some personality types while they create in others a subtle distress. I know that must be the explanation, because I've been in brand new houses, still smelling of paint and plaster, that made me so uncomfortable I wanted to turn and run out, So it can't be ghosts. Unless the troubled spirits are already there, bound to the land on which the house was built ...Psychiatry is helpless, Jo ,without cooperation from the patient.”
― Barbara Michaels, The Crying Child