The Bewitching Quotes

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches. That was what Nana Alba used to say when she told Minerva bedtime stories; it was the preamble that led into a realm of shadows and mysteries.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“A mystery is the most seductive of poisons; it intoxicates the soul.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“Stories have a rhythm to them. A beginning, a middle, an end. Mysteries beg for answers, narratives demand conclusions. Perhaps this is why Ginny made such a powerful impression on me: her story had no proper finale. It was a never ending loop, a perfect circle.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“Time is a treacherous mistress. In our youth it flows slow and deep; the days stretch out endlessly. When we are children, a summer lasts for a century. As we age, the flow of time speeds up. Suddenly, a year vanishes with the snap of one’s fingers. How quickly time eludes us, how easily it tricks us.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“She’d preferred to slip into the tales of Shirley Jackson rather than go out dancing with her friends,”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“Could someone plateau at twenty-four? Could your brain shrink? She felt tired and listless all the time. Often, she was sad for no reason.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“As for the Devil, he seemed to live everywhere in New England. There was a Devil’s Rock and a Devil’s Footprint and a Devil’s Pulpit.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“The campus too had begun to shed its elegant appeal, like paint that is peeled away by the elements.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“You’re a bit too old to be listening to the silly superstitions of the peasants. Those idiotic tales will rot your brain,” Arturo said, snapping the fallboard of the piano shut with a firm hand.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“For a moment she’d shivered in fear, thinking of her great-grandmother’s tales of witches who drank the blood of the innocent on moonless nights.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“She had a fondness for stray animals and slightly damaged things. . .”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“She had that terrible split second of panic in which she did not know what shape a man’s rage might take.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“There’s probably a hidden message in the work of all writers,”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“You worry too much. Ginny has butterflies in her stomach from staring at Edgar, that’s all. Maybe she feels a bit out of sorts, but a love affair does that sometimes; it drives you mad for a season.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“That is why I left this place and why your brother should consider selling the farm. What can you learn on a farm like this except the uneducated nonsense the laborers repeat?”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“The romance of it. It’s as if you’re conducting a secret, passionate love affair. You know every detail about someone, their every word and thought. When you look at their writing, you swoon over a sentence fragment or a turn of phrase. It’s as if, through the mists of time, someone reaches out and touches your hand.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“It was as if a ripple sliced through the blackness of the night, as if someone had thrown a pebble into the dark and the dark had awoken.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“It’s okay to relax occasionally. Otherwise you’ll burn out.” Witches burn, she thought.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“She had a fondness for stray animals and slightly damaged things - the chipped frame of a mirror, the weathered pages of a book that has been kissed by the rain, the sweater that has been nibbled by a troublesome moth - which primed her to look kindly on a man like him. But she ought not to. Strays bit sometimes, and certain old books were suffused with pernicious mold.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“time is a treacherous mistress. In our youth it flows slow and deep; the
days stretch out endlessly. When we are children, a summer lasts for a
century. As we age, the flow of time speeds up. Suddenly, a year vanishes
with the snap of one’s fingers. How quickly time eludes us, how easily it
tricks us.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“Minerva closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck. She opened them again. On the kitchen table she noticed a dark lump and stepped closer: it was a dead rat, with its feet sticking up in the air.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching

“it was hard to go on dates when she didn’t even want to change out of her pajamas.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching