Need A Scare? 10 Chilling Quotes To Creep You Out

When it's autumn and there's a chill in the air, I can't resist reading some truly creepy books. Something about the weather makes me crave ghost stories and thrillers (though I often regret this when it's two a.m. and I am wide awake, thinking over the terrifying stories). Take a look at these chilling book quotes to get yourself in the mood for an equally spooky read.

Sometimes it's the characters who strike me as particularly disturbing. There are so many spine-tingling characters in literature, and books from classics to modern literature are full of these great villains. Sometimes it's the setting that's frightening. Whether I'm reading something taking place on a stormy night in an abandoned mansion, or a cold day on an empty moor, there are plenty of creepy settings that will make your hair stand on end.

Sometimes, though, what really creeps me out can just be one single sentence, one line, or one quote. A well-crafted sentence can be spookier than a novel filled with horrors. Here are a few chilling book quotes that never fail to send a shiver down my spine:

1. "Marley was dead, to begin with."

— Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

2. "At the same time a light unexpectedly sprang up, and I saw Carmilla, standing, near the foot of my bed, in her white nightdress, bathed, from her chin to her feet, in one great stain of blood.”

— J. Sheridan LeFanu, Carmilla

3. “I thought that Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment that I cut his throat.”

—Truman Capote, In Cold Blood

4. “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

5. "It's you that ought to be lying there in the church crypt, not her. It's you who ought to be dead, not Mrs. de Winter."

— Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

6. “How do I know you'll keep your word?" asked Coraline."I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave.""Does she have a grave?" asked Coraline."Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.”

― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

7. "It had been so long since any of them had occupied a world where right and wrong existed in any real way. Whatever instincts they’d ever had—the weak twinge in the gut, a gnaw of concern—had become inaudible.”

― Emma Cline, The Girls

8. “There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.”

― Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

9. "Whose hand was I holding?”

― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

10. "I beheld the wretch — the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me.”

—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Images: Giphy (4), 20th Century Fox (1)