Books

10 Spooky Quotes From Books For Your Halloween Night Insta Caption

by Melissa Ragsdale
Guille Faingold/Stocksy

Do you feel that chill in the air? Can you hear the whisper of other worlds? Does the dark seem a little darker? Halloween is upon us, and as you settle in for the scary holiday, it's time to fill your Instagram with pictures of pumpkins, candy corn, and (of course) costumes. Nothing captures the spirit of the holiday more than a spooky literary quote in your caption.

I don't know about you, but I'm obsessed with Halloween. I love to put together an elaborate costume. I adore carving jack-o-lanterns and pinning spiderwebs on every surface I can find. I have the soundtrack to Nightmare Before Christmas on repeat basically the entire month of October. And of course, I take this opportunity to eat lots and lots of candy.

But of course, the best part of the holiday is getting to dig in to the eerie, spine-tingling, and other-worldly vibes that Halloween brings. It's the perfect time to lose yourself in a horror book. Monsters, witches, and plenty of magic await every Halloween, both on the page and off.

So whether you're celebrating this All Hallow's Eve with tricks or treats, here are 10 quotes from books that will make the perfect captions to your Halloween-tastic Insta pics.

"Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet. Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked."

— Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree

"Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?”

— Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“As if the night had said to me, ‘You are the night and the night alone understands you and enfolds you in its arms’ One with the shadows. Without nightmare. An inexplicable peace.”

“She ate the stars and swallowed the earth, She is the girl with all the power.”

― Zoraida Córdova, Labyrinth Lost

“There was no moon. The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.”

― Daphne DuMaurier, Rebecca

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before"

― Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven"

"Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.”

— Stephen King, The Shining

"The moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places."

— Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“She wasn’t wearing a mask! The monstrous green face was her face. She wasn’t wearing a monster costume. None of the Horrors were wearing costumes, I realized."

― R.L. Stine, One Day at Horrorland

“What frightens you? What makes the hair on your arms rise, your palms sweat, the breath catch in your chest like a wild thing caged? Is it the dark? A fleeting memory of a bedtime story, ghosts and goblins and witches hiding in the shadows? Is it the way the wind picks up just before a storm, the hint of wet in the air that makes you want to scurry home to the safety of your fire? Or is it something deeper, something much more frightening, a monster deep inside that you've glimpsed only in pieces, the vast unknown of your own soul where secrets gather with a terrible power, the dark inside?”