"I sort of thought that maybe people had to talk that way, … - Shirley Jackson

"I sort of thought that maybe people had to talk that way, sort of saying the same things over and over because that way they can get along together without thinking." She stopped and thought. Why I was so worried,” she said, “was because if people didn't say those damn things over and over, then they wouldn't talk to each other at all.

Shirley Jackson

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories · April 21, 2008 Verified in 1 source Sign up to see the complete provenance

banality banalities mrs-anderson pleasantries talk-about-the-weather small-talk conversation

English

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About Shirley Jackson

Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer known for her works of horror and mystery. Over her writing career, which spanned more than two decades, she composed six novels, two memoirs, and over 200 short stories.

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Alternative Names: Shirley Hardie Jackson

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Originators like Shirley Jackson:

Margaret Atwood Truman Capote Louise Erdrich Virginia Woolf Katherine Anne Porter

Additional quotes by Shirley Jackson

...very lonely and, often, very unhappy, with the poignant misery that comes to lonely people who long to be social and cannot, somehow, step naturally and unselfconsciously into some friendly group

"I think we are only afraid of ourselves," the doctor said slowly.
"No," Luke said. "Of seeing ourselves clearly and without disguise."

Fear is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway,

"I sort of thought that maybe people had to talk that way, sort of saying the same things over and over because that way they can get along together … - Shirley Jackson

About Shirley Jackson

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Additional quotes by Shirley Jackson