Gerald's Game Quotes
"No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer."
"The jamb always swelled in the fall and you really had to give the door a yank to shut it."
"This is stupid, she thought, but stupid wasn't the whole story, either."
"She didn't like to admit it, but there it was."
"Are you sure you want to have any sex with this man?"
"She didn't just dislike that dumb grin, she realized; she despised it."
"If no one comes or I can't think of a way to wiggle free by tomorrow morning, I won't even be able to look at that glass."
"Doesn't matter and I'll tell you why—if I am capable of pulling harder, what happened to Maddy's left wrist when the car door slammed on it is going to happen to both of mine."
"Hey! Is anyone there? I need some help if you are! Is anyone there?"
"That smell was stronger than the impulses of its feral heart."
"She had caught the stink of her own fear, it was as strong and compelling to her as the smell of the sandwich leftovers was to the dog."
"This new panic-attack was like some weird mental eclipse—it filtered out the bright light of reason and hope."
"This was happening, and if help didn't come, it might well go on happening until she ceased to exist as a life-form."
"She would have welcomed Maury Povich and the entire film crew of A Current Affair with tears of gratitude."
"There were only that long, queerly unpleasant shadow, which made her think of some weird dogspider balancing on four thin and febrile legs."
"The only thing of which she was completely sure was that the dog meant nothing; it was only going to stand out there on the back porch for awhile and then go away."
"Tears oozed out from beneath her lashes and spilled slowly down her cheeks. In the late-afternoon sun, they looked like drops of gold."
"No answers. All the interior voices had fallen silent. That was bad—they were company, at least—but the panic had also gone, leaving only its heavy-metal aftertaste, and that was good."
"Her reaction was instant and unequivocal. 'You get out!' she screamed at it, unaware that her overstrained voice had taken on a hoarse foghorn quality."
"The dog's stomach cramped, sour and imperative with hunger, and it whined uneasily."
"It was blood, all right, but it was the wrong blood. It was the blood of a master."
"She pulled her legs up, using the handcuffs to yank herself back against the headboard at the same time."
"The stray couldn't have moved him if the rug had still been down, but Jessie had made arrangements to have the floor waxed the week after Labor Day."
"Rage might not help her get out of this nightmarish situation, but she sensed that it would serve as an antidote to her growing sense of shocked unreality."
"Jessie lay on the bed, now faintly aware of the throbbing in her own shoulders, more aware that her throat really hurt now."
"It was a clear-cut case of so near and yet so far."
"The certainty was this—she couldn't hold the shelf any longer."
"The glass did stay in her hand, and now she could see the coaster. It clung to the bottom of the glass like a flying saucer."
"Jessie brought the glass toward her mouth, concentrating on the wet sweetness just ahead, the drenching downpour."
"You're scaring me, you know. Won't you say something? Can't you talk? If you're really there, can't you please talk to me?"
"If you didn't want me to tell anyone I saw you, I wouldn't. I sure wouldn't! And I'd be so... so grateful."
"Please, is someone there? If there is, won't you please help me?"
"What are you? A man? A devil? What in God's name are you?"
"All right, go ahead. It's why you came back, isn't it? So go ahead."
"There was no one here, Jessie—you know that, don't you? Your imagination put on a little slide-show, that's all."
"You're not my father! I don't think you're anyone! I think you're only made of moonlight!"
"This isn't a horror movie or an episode of The Twilight Zone, Jess; this is real life."
"People are almost always safe from ghosts and ghouls and the living dead in daylight, and they're usually safe from them at night if they're with others, but when a person is alone in the dark, all bets are off."
"It can be your Daddy, this essentially alien part of her whispered... It can be, never doubt it."
"Stop cross-examining me! This is your home, not Part Two of Superior Court, in case you hadn't noticed!"
"You brought the subject up, not me, I just asked—"
"Arguments with my husband have a way of doing that, isn't that strange?"
"Don't they say it's the squeaky wheel that always gets the grease?"
"That's a lousy, underhanded, unfair thing to say."
"Eclipse Burgers for two on the deck tomorrow. It's all fixed."
"I love you, Daddy. Love you, too, Punkin. A hundred million hunches."
"It wasn't possible, was it, that they— No, it's not. It's not possible at all, so just shut up."
"Because nothing happened. And I'm not... I mean, I couldn't be... I couldn't be pregnant, then?"
"Please don't call me toots! You lie. Shut up, you're horrible."
"You're still making excuses for him, aren't you? Still letting him off the hook and blaming yourself."
"I know that fucking phone is out of reach."
"I'd've been hanging over the wrong fucking side," she said, half-laughing and half-sobbing. "Jesus, somebody shoot me."
"Pick another choice," she said huskily. "I don't like that one."
"Same weight, ten times the leverage," she muttered. "Modern physics at its finest."
"You can call me the voice of despair if it makes you feel better, or if it helps you to hold onto your sanity for a little while longer—God knows I'm all for sanity—but what I really am is the voice of truth."
"Stop talking," she muttered. "All of you, stop talking."
"Can't believe it," she croaked. "Can't. Fucking. Believe it."
"It didn't look like the edge of the bed; it looked like the edge of the world."
"The sheet against which her breasts and lacerated hand were pressed was growing soggy with blood."
"The important thing was that the thumb and first two fingers on that hand were still taking messages."
"Everything seemed surreal now. Except that wasn't exactly the right word. The right word was... 'Hyper-real.'"
"Once she was up, she held the handle tightly until the world stopped swaying."
"The sun doesn't shine on the same dog's ass every day."
"All the same it's getting better, and that's good... right?"
"If I got out of the mess I was in, I'd do that. But I kept putting it off."
"I don't think you're anyone! You're only made of moonlight!"
"Sometimes it takes heart to write about a thing, doesn't it? To let that thing out of the room way in the back of your mind and put it up there on the screen."
"Survival is still an option, and that sometimes it even feels good. That sometimes it actually feels like victory."
"For the first time in a long time, this simple realization didn't fill her with terror."
"Words had a way of creating their own imperatives."
"There is no magic stake to drive through the hearts of the real monsters."
"I'm going to be okay. Not today, not tomorrow, and not next week, but eventually."
"Every time I hear an unfamiliar step coming up the walk I know it's come back—come back to finish the job."
"Even when my rational mind decided that he'd probably been shadows and moonlight every time I saw him, he was with me."