The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain,” said Lord Byron, - Shirley Jackson

I shall commence, I think, with a slight exaggeration and go on from there into an outright lie.

It is unholy because it is heretic. It is foul. It is abominable to need something so badly that you cannot picture living without it. It is a contradiction to the condition of mankind.

the houses described in Leviticus as ‘leprous,’ tsaraas, or Homer’s phrase for the underworld: aidao domos, the house of Hades; I need not remind you, I think, that the concept of certain houses as unclean or forbidden — perhaps sacred — is as old as the mind of man.