"Fear makes us blind, and we touch each fear with all the avid curiosity of self-interest, trying to make a whole out of a hundred parts, like the blind men with their elephant. We sense the shape. Children grasp it easily, forget it, and relearn it as adults. The shape is there, and most of us come to realize what it is sooner or later: it is the shape of a body under a sheet. All our fears add up to one great fear, all our fears are part of that great fear - an arm, a leg, a finger, an ear. We're afraid of the body under the sheet. It's our body. And the great appeal of horror fiction through the ages is that it serves as a rehearsal for our own deaths."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Night_Shift_(short_story_collection)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Night Shift (short story collection)
30 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Night Shift (short story collection) →
Related Quotes
"Jim remembered the warning in Raising Demons - the danger involved. You could perhaps summon them, perhaps cause them…"
"What I propose is this: that you walk around my building on the ledge that juts out just below the penthouse level. I…"
"The room was empty. But the closet door was open. Just a crack. "So nice," the voice from the closet said. "So nice."…"
"So much of the world is paved now. Even the playgrounds are paved. And for the fields and marshes and deep woods ther…"
"I've been thinking about that foggy night when I had a headache and walked for air and passed all the lovely shadows …"
"Where I am, it's still dark and raining. We've got a fine night for it. There's something I want to show you, somethi…"
"There were eyes peering up at me through splits in the flesh of my fingers. And even as I watched the flesh was dilat…"
"I didn't like that machine. It seemed...almost to be mocking us."
"It was very funny how George Stanner lost his arm in the mangler."
"The ledge is five inches wide," he said dreamily. "I've measured it myself. In fact, I've stood on it, holding on to …"