Cornell Woolrich

“All guys are scared of each other, didn't you know that? I'm not the only one. We're all born afraid. ("New York…

— Cornell Woolrich

“...all a guy can do is die once. The big difference is whether he dies clean - or dirty... ("I'm Dangerous Tonight")”

— Cornell Woolrich

“Babette looked too good for the place tonight, but then goodness is only relative after all ("Steps Going Up" aka "Guillotine" aka…

— Cornell Woolrich

It's just some instinct as old as fear: you seek the dark when you hide, you seek the light when the need…

— Cornell Woolrich

You see, this would be a death by the imagination. And though the imagination feeds on phantoms, it needs a premise in…

— Cornell Woolrich

It was as simple as that - they met. As simple as only beautiful things can be beautiful, as only life-changing things,…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Now the moon of the Aztecs is at the zenith, and all the world lies still. Full and white, the white of…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Evans made himself their spokesman. "Charlie and Joe," he offered. "Remember us? We brought a friend back with us this time." Girls…

— Cornell Woolrich

It isn't dying I'm afraid of, it isn't that at all; I know what it is to die, I've died already. It…

— Cornell Woolrich

“The shears found his throat this time. He fell down on top of them and was silent. Something dark like mucilage glistened…

— Cornell Woolrich

“His fear-inflamed mind sent the control-signal to his finger-joint to fold back. The trigger sliced back. The blast seemed to lift the…

— Cornell Woolrich

“She thrust out her arms wide, in strange ritual of triumph, as Mimi Brissard had in Paris. She was a black, ominous…

— Cornell Woolrich

It seems so long ago that he was last afraid of anything. Seventeen, was he then? Eighteen? Sometimes he thinks he's missing…

— Cornell Woolrich

I was trying to cheat death. I was only trying to surmount for a little while the darkness that all my life…

— Cornell Woolrich

I rang the bell and she opened the door, dried her hands, and said heartily: 'Hello, stranger. I was just saying to…

— Cornell Woolrich

“I took a few dragging steps toward the locker-room door. 'You're doing something to me that I wouldn't do to a dog,'…

— Cornell Woolrich

“When she comes down to supper I don't like her any better; in fact, a hell of a lot less. She's put…

— Cornell Woolrich

“A raging, glowering full moon had come up, was peering down over the side of the sky well above the patio. That…

— Cornell Woolrich

“And I still say it was just a coincidence;' he muttered pugnaciously. 'You say it too! Look at me and say it!…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Just inside the doorway he puts down the bags, motions her to stand by them a minute. He saunters out ahead, carefully…

— Cornell Woolrich

The girl's face was the color of talcum. Her uncle's was a death mask, a bone structure overlaid by parchment. Shane's was…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Every life is a mystery. And every story of every life is a mystery. But it is not what happens that is…

— Cornell Woolrich

“The sun goes down and it's night-time in New Orleans. The moon rises, midnight chimes from St. Louis cathedral, and hardly has…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Lew had never seen a dead man before. He just stood there, and looked and looked. Then he went a step closer,…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Home? What is home? Home is where a house is that you come back to when the rainy season is about to…

— Cornell Woolrich

“He just lingers long enough to see his plane put to bed properly, then grabs a cab at the airport-gate. "The Settlement"…

— Cornell Woolrich

“When I came out into the outside room again, I saw her shoe still lying there, where it had come off in…

— Cornell Woolrich

“The cemetery watchman left the room and returned with a tray holding three small skulls and a large one. I could feel…

— Cornell Woolrich

“An attachment grew up. What is an attachment? It is the most difficult of all the human interrelationships to explain, because it…

— Cornell Woolrich

“As the bartender struck a match to light her cigarette, she put her hand on his wrist to steady it. Travis saw…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Maldonado's face was ghastly. 'That' she said, pointing below the bed where the cat lurked, 'and that' - pointing to what lay…

— Cornell Woolrich

“Louisville, an hour after dark, is a carpet of gilt thumbtacks below them, with straight, twinkling lines like strings of beads leading…

— Cornell Woolrich

“I got another chestful of air in, tore loose with it. 'Somebody help me! You people standing around looking, isn't there one…

— Cornell Woolrich

Beside her, her husband could only splutter, and he stopped even that when she half turned to flash him a smile -…

— Cornell Woolrich

“It was dark now, and broodingly sluggish. Like something supine waiting to spring, with just the tip of its tail twitching. Leaves…

— Cornell Woolrich

“The big weekend rush is on. The big city emptying itself out at once. Just a skeleton crew left to keep it…

— Cornell Woolrich

“We don't marry women, he thought; we marry angels, and in this moment or two of the marriage act, the scales fall…

— Cornell Woolrich

“She's a slinky sort of person, no angles at all; and magnetic - you can't take your eyes off her. She's dressed…

— Cornell Woolrich

“And he's alone there, with the unconscious pilot lying a little way off for company, and some other guy he's never even…

— Cornell Woolrich

As for her perfume, it was the kind you only noticed after she'd left a room, not while she was still in…

— Cornell Woolrich