Robert Bloch Quotes & Sayings

Talk about not knowing other people - why, when you came right down to it, you didn't even know yourself! — Robert Bloch

Sam, what do you think happened? — Robert Bloch

Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly... — Robert Bloch

So much for modern science and its wonderful discoveries that just about everything can kill you. Life is only a bedtime story before a long, long sleep. — Robert Bloch

People hear that I am a horror writer and they think that I must be a monster, but actually I have the heart of a small child - I keep it in a jar on my desk. — Robert Bloch

I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times. — Robert Bloch

I always carry a pistol when I go [to the New York Public Library]. Never did trust those stone lions. — Robert Bloch

A week ago, Norman would never have dared. But this wasn't a week ago, it was now, and things were different. It was now, and he had to face the truth. — Robert Bloch

Norman Bates heard the noise and a shock went through him. — Robert Bloch

I urge you with all sincerity to get to work, write a book, write two - three - four books, just as a matter of course. Don't worry about 'wasting' an idea or 'spoiling' a plot by going too fast. If you are capable of turning out a masterpiece, you'll get other and even better ideas in the future. Right now your job is to write, and to write books so that by so doing you'll gain the experience to write still better books later on. — Robert Bloch

She'd thrown something at the mirror, and then the mirror broke into a thousand pieces and she knew that wasn't all; she was breaking into a thousand pieces, too. — Robert Bloch

The thought came creeping, just as the numbness came creeping, stealing over his senses, softly, smoothly, there in the silken silence. — Robert Bloch

A boy's best friend is his mother. — Robert Bloch

Mother had wandered off - where? Was she out on the highway, ready to be picked up by anyone who might come driving by? Was she still suffering a hysterical reaction, would the shock of what she had done cause her to blurt out the truth to whoever came along and found her? Had she actually run away, or was she merely in a daze? Maybe she'd gone down past the woods back of the house, along the narrow ten-acre strip of their land which stretched off into the swamp. Wouldn't it be better to search for her first? Norman sighed and shook — Robert Bloch

Sure God created man before woman, but then again you always make a rough draft before creating the final masterpiece. — Robert Bloch

Norman took another drink, just a sip. He could feel the wetness trickle down the side of his chin. He must be drunk. All right, he was drunk, what did it matter? As long as Mother didn't know. As long as the girl didn't know. It would all be a big secret. Impotent, was he? Well, that didn't mean he couldn't see her again. — Robert Bloch

Once you began speculation about that, once you admited to yourself that you didn't really know how another person's mind operated, then you came up against the ultimate admission - anything was possible. — Robert Bloch

We all go a little mad sometimes. — Robert Bloch

We're all not quite as sane as we pretend to be. — Robert Bloch

What kind of a hick town is this, anyway?" she murmured. "A bank is held up and the sheriff is in church. What's he doing, praying that somebody will catch the robbers for him? — Robert Bloch

But she didn't listen, she was in the bathroom, she was getting dressed, she was putting on make-up, she was getting ready. Getting ready. — Robert Bloch

Magic
that's just a label, you know. Completely meaningless. It wasn't so very long ago that people were saying that electricity was magic. — Robert Bloch

The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else he can blame it on. — Robert Bloch

So I had this problem
work or starve. So I thought I'd combine the two and decided to become a writer. — Robert Bloch

If she sat there without moving, they wouldn't punish her. If she sar there without moving, they'd know that she was sane, sane, sane. — Robert Bloch

And then, as he ripped back the shower curtains and stared down at the hacked and twisted thing sprawled on the floor of the stall, he realized that Mother had used her keys. — Robert Bloch

Norman stirred, turned, and then fell into a darkness deeper and more engulfing than the swamp. — Robert Bloch

Norman Bates will never die... — Robert Bloch

The sun surrendered its splendor - why, it was like poetry; he was a poet; Norman smiled. He was many things. If they only knew - - But — Robert Bloch

It's all right", he said, wondering at the same time why there were no better words, why there never are any better words to answer fear and grief and loneliness. "It's all right, believe me. — Robert Bloch

Trivial," he echoed. "Perhaps. Then again, maybe it's all in the way you look at it — Robert Bloch

But first he was going to take a drink, a big drink, because he needed one. And it didn't matter whether he drank or not, nothing mattered now; it was all over. All over, or just beginning. — Robert Bloch

He managed to retain a cheerful smile at all times - though, in the dreams, he screamed. — Robert Bloch

That was still my meat - the true-detective yarn. I picked it up and started to read it over, wondering for the ten thousandth time why so many people are interested in crime and its solution. — Robert Bloch

Then she did see it there - just a face, peering through the curtains, hanging in midair like a mask. A head-scarf concealed the hair and the glassy eyes stared inhumanly, but it wasn't a mask, it couldn't be. The skin had been powdered dead-white and two hectic spots of rouge centered on the cheekbones. It wasn't a mask. It was the face of a crazy old woman. Mary started to scream, and then the curtains parted further and a hand appeared, holding a butcher's knife. It was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream.
And her head. — Robert Bloch

Everything in this business makes sense, because it serves a real purpose, fills a need that's a part of living. Even a single nail, like this one, fulfills a function. Drive it into a crucial place and you can depend on it to do a job, keep on doing it for a hundred years to come. Long after we're dead and gone, both of us. — Robert Bloch

That's the way girls were
they always laughed. Because they were bitches. — Robert Bloch

All at once she could hear the sullen patter of the rain and sense the sigh of the wind behind it. She remembered the sound, because it had rained like that the day Mom was buried, the day they lowered her into that little rectangle of darkness. — Robert Bloch

It's sad, when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son. But I couldn't allow them to believe that I would commit murder. They'll put him away now, as I should have years ago. He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man... as if I could do anything but just sit and stare, like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can't move a finger, and I won't. I'll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do... suspect me. They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching... they'll see. They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, "Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly... — Robert Bloch

Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk. — Robert Bloch

He wanted to shout at her that she was wrong, but he couldn't. Because the things she was saying were the things he had told himself, over and over again, all through the years. It was true. She'd always laid down the law to him, but that didn't mean he always had to obey. Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed. There had been other widows, other only sons, and not all of them became enmeshed in this sort of relationship. It was really his fault as much as hers. Because he didn't have any gumption. — Robert Bloch

But meanwhile he had to do something about the way his heart pounded. — Robert Bloch

Forget the past, let the dead bury the dead. Things were working out fine, and that was the only thing he had to remember. — Robert Bloch

I have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar on my shelf. — Robert Bloch

Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed. — Robert Bloch

A foolish man tells a woman to stop talking, but a wise man tells her that her mouth is extremely beautiful when her lips are closed. — Robert Bloch

Besides, that thing was waiting for him. Waiting for him - — Robert Bloch

Evil exists everywhere. Sometimes I think our limited senses are designed to protect us from awareness of its presence. We trust them to provide us with knowledge but it may be that they block out realization of horrors we cannot bear. — Robert Bloch

I know why you didn't bother to switch on the sign. I know why you haven't even gone up to open the office tonight. You didn't really forget. It's just that you don't want anyone to come, you hope they don't come." "All — Robert Bloch

I'VE never seen such a look of mortal agony on a human face before. She screamed quite a bit before she died, and the last shriek was forever frozen on her face. — Robert Bloch

The light shone down on his plump face, reflected from his rimless glasses, bathed the pinkness of his scalp beneath the thinning sandy hair as he bent his head to resume reading. — Robert Bloch

The car was in the swamp. And the hamper was in the trunk. And the body was in the hamper. The twisted torso and the bloody head. But he couldn't think about that. He mustn't. There were other things to do. — Robert Bloch

She was afrad of him, now. Yes, she must be. Because not once, all through this, had she called him "son". — Robert Bloch

The room was plainly but adequately furnished; she noted the shower stall in the bathroom beyond. Actually, she would have preferred a tub, but this would do. — Robert Bloch

Funny how we take it for granted that we know all there is to know about another person, just because we see them frequently or because of some strong emotional tie. — Robert Bloch

Horror is the removal of masks. — Robert Bloch

She was the only one left, and she was real.
To be the only one, and to know that you are real - that's sanity, isn't it?
But just to be on the safe side, maybe it was best to keep pretending that one was a stuffed figure. Not to move. Never to move. Just to sit here in the tiny room, forever and ever.
If she sat there without moving, they wouldn't punish her.
If she sat there without moving, they'd know that she was sane, sane, sane.
She sat there for quite a long time, and then a fly came buzzing through the bars.
It lighted on her hand.
If she wanted to, she could reach out and swat the fly.
But she didn't swat it.
She didn't swat it, and she hoped they were watching, because that proved what sort of a person she really was.
Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly ... — Robert Bloch

Strange how everyone tried to disguise truth with nonsense. Like the slang for death: kicking the bucket, wiped out, snuffed, wasted, blown away. The light touch to dispel the heavy fear. — Robert Bloch

I haven't had this much fun since the rats ate my baby sister — Robert Bloch

No trouble at all. Mother's gone back to bed, and she won't be doing any cooking - I was only going to set out some cold cuts and make some coffee. If that's all right with you." "Well - — Robert Bloch

Henderson sighed. There was a time, he reflected, when the coming of this night meant something. A dark Europe, groaning in superstitious fear, dedicated this Eve to the grinning Unknown. A million doors had once been barred against the evil visitants, a million prayers mumbled, a million candles lit. There was something majestic about the idea, Henderson reflected. — Robert Bloch

Mother would be in real trouble right now. — Robert Bloch

Forget the pat, let the dead burry the dead. — Robert Bloch

Why do we personify time? Is it because we're afraid to admit that our lives are measured by an abstract force that neither knows nor cares about our entry into existence? Or our departure into death? Time is our mysterious master giving it a face and hands we attempt to transform it into our servant. — Robert Bloch

Murder was a terrible thing. Even if you're not quite right in the head, you can realize that much. Mother must be suffering quite a bit. Perhaps — Robert Bloch

Yes, Norman, I suppose you're right. That's where I'd probably be. But I wouldn't be there alone." Norman slammed the door, locked it, and turned away. He wasn't quite sure, but as he ran up the cellar steps he thought he could still hear her chuckling gently in the dark. — Robert Bloch

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. — Robert Bloch

Their smiles were cracking. Glass is brittle. — Robert Bloch

Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings. — Robert Bloch

As she reached the landing, the thunder came. The whole house seemed to shake with it. — Robert Bloch

There's nothing to this telepathy business. It's all in the mind. — Robert Bloch

Lila closed her mouth, but the scream continued. It was the insane scream of an hysterical woman, and it came from the throat of Norman Bates. — Robert Bloch