Incidents Around The House Josh Malerman Quotes

The older I get, the more I think the barometer for intelligence is how kind you are. Because it’s not an easy thing to do, staying mindful, after all you go through in life.

If there’s one thing I could convey to you, one thing that would take root in you just like the need to eat and sleep, it would be this: try to stay kind as long as you can.

That’s real cruelty. That’s world cruelty. Where it’s not just the idea that one person is cruel, it’s that they believe, and have reason to believe, the whole world feels the same.

Sometimes it’s nice to just vent. Sometimes when you complain, it’s not because you want to be told how to fix it. You just wanna say it sucks. Because sometimes it just sucks.

When one thing leaves your house or heart, it makes room for another to take its place. This is why it’s unwise to make solid statues inside. A statue takes up space without moving, without flowing, without growing.

Meanness doesn’t have to spread. It can stop with the mean person, stop at the threshold of the kind person. I guess I’d put it this way: don’t let them in. Don’t invite them in.

If you think about it, every time you’ve ever been scared in your life so far, you’ve also survived whatever you were scared of. Right? You’ve literally gotten through everything you thought you might not. Everything you thought you weren’t strong enough to get through…you got through it. Or else you wouldn’t be here to know you got through it. Right?

It’s all right to be nervous. You’ll learn soon enough in life that everybody’s nervous about something and it’s the ones who do the things they need to do anyway who end up getting the most out of it.

I won’t make a statue of what they told me. I don’t want it in my house.

try to stay kind as long as you can. For all of your life. Always be mindful of what others are enduring. And whatever you do, most of all, don’t allow someone else’s meanness, someone else’s cruelty, to get inside of you.

So the goal, I think, is to stay kind for as long as you can, no matter what happens to you. No matter what you go through, no matter how many breaks you get and how many you don’t.

Because no matter what’s going on in your head, your heart, your life, it’s always wise to remember to eat.

Sometimes when you complain, it’s not because you want to be told how to fix it. You just wanna say it sucks. Because sometimes it just sucks.

You’ll learn soon enough in life that everybody’s nervous about something and it’s the ones who do the things they need to do anyway who end up getting the most out of it.

Everything you thought you weren’t strong enough to get through…you got through it. Or else you wouldn’t be here to know you got through it.

Grandma said they were going to “pay for it” tomorrow, but Evelyn said it’s the kind of money we’re supposed to spend while we’re still alive.

But I have closets, she says. I do. I love your daddo more than you’ll ever know, but sometimes I wonder if you’re supposed to marry someone with a similar floor plan.

You ever think, Bela, how people say that light shows what things really look like, but they also say that light and dark are equal and need each other and you can't have one without the other and so . . . is it so crazy to say that maybe what we see in the dark is the truth too?

One day this will all be something we got through. One day, the problems you have now will be like a legend in your life. I don’t know a single person who got stuck in the same problem for the rest of their life.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the house, like the heart, has corners and closets and places for things to hide. That’s really what I wanted to say to you right now. That you may not even know that something’s hiding in your house or heart unless someone like me, a friend in your life, told you that such things can be.

Why, hello there, I say. I’m Bela. And my parents have been arguing all day. Who are you? The red butterfly flaps its wings and I think he can see me. I think he’s looking back at me. I came all the way from my habitat to see you, I say. And my parents use the zoo to fight.

So the goal, I think, is to stay kind for as long as you can, no matter what happens to you. No matter what you go through, no matter how many breaks you get and how many you don’t. And I think you always have to remember that if someone is mean to you, they are like that with everybody else too. You see, Bela? Meanness doesn’t have to spread. It can stop with the mean person, stop at the threshold of the kind person.

When you grow up, you ought to find an interest that serves many purposes at once. It means you’re doing the right thing if the thing you do serves you in more than one way.

don’t know a single person who got stuck in the same problem for the rest of their life.

…you have nothing to be afraid of. I understand this all sounds truly crazy. But you know what? It’s the year 2024 and there isn’t any proof of ghosts yet.

I’m jealous of the kids who aren’t afraid. Who don’t have a reason to be afraid.

If you think about it, every time you’ve ever been scared in your life so far, you’ve also survived whatever you were scared of.

We tried. We tried to leave the haunted house. But we're haunted. It's us.

Would you really tell your mommy? I ask. Even if your mommy might get hurt?

And I think you always have to remember that if someone is mean to you, they are like that with everybody else too.

How long can you maintain an open heart and an open mind in this world, how long can you sustain being kind to other people, no matter what they say or do.

We’re living a storm of a story,

Some people let in a lot of dark feelings and some people don’t let any dark feelings in at all, but that’s a lot of work and I think it’s best to let in a good healthy mix of both.

If you think about it, every time you’ve ever been scared in your life so far, you’ve also survived whatever you were scared of. Right? You’ve literally gotten through everything you thought you might

It’s all right to be nervous. You’ll learn soon enough in life that everybody’s nervous about something and it’s the ones who do the things they need to do anyway who end up getting the most out of it. Okay?

Daddo holds me tight and mumbles. Mommy drives. We tried. Our house is haunted and we tried to leave it. We tried. But it’s us. It’s me. We tried. We tried to leave the haunted house. But we’re haunted. It’s us. We tried.

But one time when I asked her what would happen to me if I let her into my heart, she told me I would go where she comes from. We’d switch places, she said. I told her I didn’t want to be in the closet. She told me that’s not where she comes from.

Well, there’s a purity to being innocent. Being unaware of the bad things in the world. Being unaware of the bad things people can do. Even people close to you. People you love. Animals are innocent because they aren’t motivated by things other than survival.

So the goal, I think, is to stay kind for as long as you can, no matter what happens to you. No matter what you go through, no matter how many breaks you get and how many you don’t. And I think you always have to remember that if someone is mean to you, they are like that with everybody else too.

Whatever this is, it’ll all make more sense in the morning, Daddo tells me and Mommy. When the sun is up and it’s daytime, all of this will make more sense. But Mommy is sleeping already. And I’m thinking: Why would it be any better in the day? The park was during the day. And why is the light any more true than the dark?

The grocery store might be someone's safe place. So maybe they go there to buy just one or two items. Because it feels good hust to be there. And the park could be someone's place to think. Every time they go to the park, they work their problems out. A location can be a beacon to someone else, even if they're only dots on a map to you

If you think about it, every time you’ve ever been scared in your life so far, you’ve also survived whatever you were scared of. Right? You’ve literally gotten through everything you thought you might not. Everything you thought you weren’t strong enough to get through…you got through it. Or else you wouldn’t be here to know you got through it.

If there’s one thing I could convey to you, one thing that would take root in you just like the need to eat and sleep, it would be this: try to stay kind as long as you can. For all of your life. Always be mindful of what others are enduring. And whatever you do, most of all, don’t allow someone else’s meanness, someone else’s cruelty, to get inside of you.

You know, Bela, fear is a super interesting thing. If you think about it, every time you’ve ever been scared in your life so far, you’ve also survived whatever you were scared of. Right? You’ve literally gotten through everything you thought you might not. Everything you thought you weren’t strong enough to get through…you got through it. Or else you wouldn’t be here to know you got through it.

So the goal, I think, is to stay kind for as long as you can, no matter what happens to you. No matter what you go through, no matter how many breaks you get and how many you don’t. And I think you always have to remember that if someone is mean to you, they are like that with everybody else too. You see, Bela? Meanness doesn’t have to spread. It can stop with the mean person, stop at the threshold of the kind person. I guess I’d put it this way: don’t let them in. Don’t invite them in. If there’s one thing I could convey to you, one thing that would take root in you just like the need to eat and sleep, it would be this: try to stay kind as long as you can. For all of your life. Always be mindful of what others are enduring. And whatever you do, most of all, don’t allow someone else’s meanness, someone else’s cruelty, to get inside of you.

You could learn the piano in this house. And what if you did? And what if that led to you playing concerts all over the world? Then wouldn’t this house become big as the world? Sometimes, when people are all grown up, they come by to visit the house they grew up in. You know why? Because their childhood took place in that house. And your childhood is taking place in this house. And childhood has a habit of playing a major role in the rest of your life. Doesn’t that make this house bigger? Doesn’t something so important give this house more room?

The following books proved invaluable in the research and inspiration for this novel: The Dictionary of Demons by M. Belanger. United States of Jihad: Investigating America’s Homegrown Terrorists by Peter Bergen. Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon by Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko. We Need to Do Something by Max Booth III. The Bewdley Mayhem Omnibus by Tony Burgess. Pontypool (the play) by Tony Burgess. The Violence by Delilah Dawson. And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin. The Passage by Justin Cronin. Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media by Joel E. Dimsdale. Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America by Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, and Brian Friedberg. In the Skin of a Jihadist by Anna Erelle. A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans. Domestic Darkness: An Insider’s Account of the January 6th Insurrection, and the Future of Right-Wing Extremism by Julie Farnam. Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi. Come Closer by Sara Gran. Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory. Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale. All These Subtle Deceits by C. S. Humble. The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease by Charles Kenny. Cell by Stephen King. Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein. The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir, translated by Mary Robinette Kowal. “Hyphae” by John Langan, featured in the anthology Fungi. The Many Hauntings of the Manning Family by Lorien Lawrence. The Penguin Book of Exorcisms, edited by Joseph P. Laycock. Spirit Possession Around the World, edited by Joseph P. Laycock. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay. Daphne and Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman. Demon Possession: A Medical, Historical, Anthropological, and Theological Symposium, edited by John Warwick Montgomery. The Demonism of the Ages, Spirit Obsessions, Oriental and Occidental Occultism by J. M. Peebles. American Girls: One Woman’s Journey into the Islamic State and Her Sister’s Fight to Bring Her Home by Jessica Roy. Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. Deliver Us from Evil: A New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural by Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool. A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic and Respect by Mick West.

I think I prefer “practically,” Evelyn says. It’s the distance between instinct and manners where the fun lies.

We tried. Our house is haunted and we tried to leave it. We tried. But it’s us. It’s me. We tried. We tried to leave the haunted house. But we’re haunted. It’s us. We tried.

You make it sound so frightening, Mommy says. What? Innocence. It is frightening, Lois says. Because the innocent are targeted first.

Other Mommy is already standing outside my closet doors.

I think sometimes we think we're scared of something just because we said we are.

Time to eat, she says. Because no matter what's going on in your head, your heart, your life, it's always wise to remember to eat.

You're gonna have your own secrets one day, Bela. I know that doesn't mean much to you right now, but it's true. It's one of those things you accumulate in life without even trying. Nobody sets out to keep secrets.