M. R. James Quotes

• If any of [my stories] succeed in causing their readers to feel pleasantly uncomfortable when walking along a solitary road at nightfall, or sitting over a dying fire in the small hours, my purpose in writing them will have been attained.

  M. R. James

  Writing, Fire, Dying

  M. R. James (2011). “Collected Ghost Stories”, p.406, OUP Oxford

  8 Copy quote

• Do I believe in ghosts?...I am prepared to consider evidence and accept it if it satisfies me.

  M. R. James

  Believe, Ghost, Accepting

  M. R. James (1987). “Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories”, p.15, Oxford Paperbacks

  16 Copy quote

• I heard one cry in the night, and I heard one laugh afterwards. If I cannot forget that, I shall not be able to sleep again.

  M. R. James

  Halloween, Sleep, Night

  M. R. James (2011). “Collected Ghost Stories”, p.70, OUP Oxford

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• Yes, I definitely prefer the daylight population of the playing fields to that which comes there after dark.

  M. R. James

  Dark, Population, Daylight

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• Reticence may be an elderly doctrine to preach, yet from the artistic point of view I am sure it is a sound one. Reticence conduces to effect, blatancy ruins it.

  M. R. James

  Elderly, Views, Sound

  M.r. James (2016). “Collected Ghost Stories”, p.52, M.r. James

  56 Copy quote

• A ghost story of which the scene is laid in the twelfth or thirteenth century may succeed in being romantic or poetical: it will never put the reader into the position of saying to himself: "If I'm not careful, something of this kind may happen to me!

  M. R. James

  Ghost Stories, May, Succeed

  M. R. James (1987). “Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories”, p.647, Oxford Paperbacks

  11 Copy quote

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