My Own Private Spectres Quotes

“At first, I kept my eyes tightly shut, but then I dared. I dared to look.

Merciful God in heaven, grant that I am mistaken, that what I thought I saw was but the product of my shattered nerves. I would like to think it was a threatening cloud, a wisp of smoke or fog, or a vestige of darkness.

In the distance, close to a horizon which it obliterated in its entirety, a formidable mask leered. Its eyes were skimming the countryside, just as a nightmarish prowler would peer over the ridge of a wall. No, no, they must have been two aquamarine holes cut through the disappearing gloom in the east, and nothing more. What else could it have been? You know how clouds assume the most fantastic shapes... I shall always repeat that it cannot have been anything else. Indeed, I am certain a being of such magnitude would not allow itself to be glimpsed by terrestrial creature... Else it would continue to spy on us in the small hours, continue to peer at the insignificant insects we are, and its heavy tread would make the bottom of the ocean tremble.”
― Jean Ray, My Own Private Spectres

“Indeed, men who manage to defeat time by anxiously safeguarding their tomorrow, by not allowing it to stray anywhere from the past, have in effect conquered death itself.”
― Jean Ray, My Own Private Spectres

“These old eyes of mine barely see your hands on the table. Illuminated by this candlelight, they look like yellow spiders. Still, they’re finely wrought Jewish hands. Whatever they hold, shall not easily be relinquished.”
― Jean Ray, My Own Private Spectres