19 Of The Most Haunting Lines In Literature

There are some hauntingly beautiful horror and thriller novels out there that are worth the read. Here are a few of the most haunting lines in literature that will convince you to pick up a scary book the next time you’re interested in reading something new:

“I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.” – Gillian Flynn, Dark Places

“He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” – Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart

“I’ll tell you now. That silence almost beat me. It’s the silence that scares me. It’s the blank page on which I can write my own fears. The spirits of the dead have nothing on it. The dead one tried to show me hell, but it was a pale imitation of the horror I can paint on the darkness in a quiet moment.” ― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Thorns

“Mr. Croup began to laugh. It sounded like a piece of blackboard being dragged over the nails of a wall of severed fingers.” — Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“What looked like morning was the beginning of endless night.” ― William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist

“Never talk to strangers. If someone ever tries to take you, fight with everything you have. Scream as loud as you can. (He’d never told her what to do if the man was too strong and there was no one to hear her screaming.)” — Lisa Unger, Ink and Bone

“People who die bad don’t stay in the ground.” — Toni Morrison, Beloved

“My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape.” – Bret Easton Hills, American Psycho

 “And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity.” — Stephen King, Pet Sematary

“Wendy? Darling? Light of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just going to bash your brains in.” — Stephen King, The Shining

“A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone.” – Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs

“The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…” — Fredric Brown, Knock

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” – William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“No live organism can continue for long to exist under conditions of absolute reality.” —Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“How could you hide from a murderer who lives under your skin?” — Nick Cutter, The Troop

“I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times.” ― Robert Bloch, Psycho

“Here is a small fact: You are going to die.” — Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.” ― Stephen King, It

“Blood is really warm, it’s like drinking hot chocolate but with more screaming.” — Ryan Mecum, Zombie Haiku