Zilpha Keatley Snyder Quotes

There is not one among us in whom a devil does not dwell; at some time, on some point, that devil masters each of us... It is not having been in the Dark House, but having left it, that counts.

What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!

I've had quite a lot to conquer in myself apart from writing. Not that I've been a pure angel when I come to the end of it.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

It's ironic, but until you can free those final monsters within the jungle of yourself, your life, your soul is up for grabs.

I believe my own demons would have caught up with me regardless of my race and regardless of whether I worked at 'The Times.'

Whoever is in control of the hell in your life, is your devil.

We all carry within us places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others.

Everyone fears and courts his own demon.

The debts we owe ourselves are the hardest to pay.

I crawled in the bathroom, looked in the mirror and saw the devil. It was me.

But even her demons she invested with inordinate beauty, consecrated them with the dignity of her attention.

I didn't tell him that what I was most scared of, most haunted by, was something I didn't understand and could never run away from. It was myself.

God defend me from myself.

As every man is hunted by his own daemon, vexed by his own disease, this checks all his activity.

The bigger confrontation is the one an individual has with itself.

I try to write about the stuff that torments us all.

Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.

If you travel too often, you actually come face-to-face with what you're trying to escape. I feel like when I travel alone, sometimes it's like being locked in a hotel room with my own worst enemy.

I always write about the things that haunt me, the questions I have.

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.

But what is the greatest evil? If you are going to epitomize evil, what is it? Is it the bomb? The greatest evil that one has to fight constantly, every minute of the day until one dies, is the worse part of oneself.

I knuckle down with my demons, and with my weaknesses.

We all have our inner demons.

My demons and I are not compatible. We never have been and never will be.