For I see that then I was still all in a state of innocence, but that innocence, once lost, is lost forever.

I have sat here at my desk, day after day, night after night, a blank sheet of paper before me, unable to lift my pen, trembling and weeping too.

Ghost stories ... tell us about things that lie hidden within all of us, and which lurk outside all around us.

I had not yet learned that we make our own destiny, it springs from within us. It is not the outward events but what we allow ourselves to make of them that count.

I'm really quite hard to scare so it was about mining times when I have jumped, and what creeps me out.

Some people make tunes, but it is lines that run like moving messages through my head. Whatever else I am saying and doing often has no bearing on this inner, verbal life.

The key word for my book The Woman in Black is unsettling... because you're not terrified all of the time or even frightened, but you're unsettled and once you're unsettled, then the door's open.

I like going into a school matinee. I like to be behind the stage because there's a spy-hole and what you see is the best moment in all theatre.

A book which is left on a shelf is a dead thing but it is also a chrysalis, an inanimate object packed with the potential to burst into new life.

I collect Victorian automata and coming across them in the dark does give you a little shudder.

I had changed, and gone on changing, but I did not fully remember how it had begun, or understand why.

Our psychological and spiritual vigilance is very important during a time of persecution

There are still people that have been held for human rights that shouldn't be held for just speaking their mind.

If something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can't speak English.

Some people change. Most people don't. Accepting this makes it much harder for them to disappoint you.

Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Meditation practice is simply moving from a life of hurting myself and others to a life of not hurting myself and others.

Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.

A German wine label is one of the things life's too short for.

Make whatever decision you wish but never forget one thing: all of you are much better than you believed. Take advantage of the chance that tragedy has given you; not everyone is capable of doing so

Fear is nothing more than a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness