“I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times.”

“All at once she could hear the sullen patter of the rain and sense the sigh of the wind behind it. She remembered the sound, because it had rained like that the day Mom was buried, the day they lowered her into that little rectangle of darkness.”

“I always carry a pistol when I go [to the New York Public Library]. Never did trust those stone lions.”

“Then she did see it there - just a face, peering through the curtains, hanging in midair like a mask. A head-scarf concealed the hair and the glassy eyes stared inhumanly, but it wasn’t a mask, it couldn’t be. The skin had been powdered dead-white and two hectic spots of rouge centered on the cheekbones. It wasn’t a mask. It was the face of a crazy old woman. Mary started to scream, and then the curtains parted further and a hand appeared, holding a butcher’s knife. It was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream.And her head.”

“The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.”

“There's nothing to this telepathy business. It's all in the mind.”

“Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed.”