Ben Farthing > Quotes

“None of it was fair. You spend your adulthood trying to craft a life that feels as safe as early childhood, but the world yanks you farther and farther away.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

“The first night I slept in my missing grandpa’s apartment, a puppet came out of the wall and stood over my bed.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

“Christmas was the one time of year when everyone had a reason to be happy for no reason.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found Christmas Lights Slithering Up My Street

“What if Grandpa hadn’t gone anywhere at all? What if he was behind the walls?”
― Ben Farthing, I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

“Adam Cesare’s graphic novel Dead Mall, and I’d watched YouTube creator Kane Pixel’s series The Oldest View.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall

“Sheila.”
― Ben Farthing, The 31st Trick-or-Treater

“Letting the mannequins touch you would be foolish. They’ll push away the world, including the spot where they pushed it away from Jimmy.” “Even if I go to the exact same spot where he was?” “It wouldn’t matter. When the world leaves you behind, it’s quite personal.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall

“Yes, it’s safe to say that up until 7:31 P.M., Maple Creek is still a neighborhood that knows the happiness of Halloween.”
― Ben Farthing, The 31st Trick-or-Treater

“Can anything jerk you from calm to panic like suddenly not knowing where your child is?”
― Ben Farthing, The 31st Trick-or-Treater

“Despite the junkyard of office furniture, it felt empty.”
― Ben Farthing, It Waits on the Top Floor

“Sane men are labeled lunatics when they witness the impossible," Micah said.”
― Ben Farthing, It Waits on the Top Floor

“My own perceptions didn’t determine reality.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

“Young moms and dads film iPhone videos of their toddlers dressed up like Bluey and Bingo, Spin and Ghost Spider, Elsa and Anna.”
― Ben Farthing, The 31st Trick-or-Treater

“Only one pair of eyes spot him: An eight-year-old boy named Sam, who doesn’t understand how his sister Mary could have vanished so quickly and completely. But the skinny man in the hoodie doesn’t know he’s been spotted, and so he keeps on with his evening, reveling in the first steps of justice being done against the people of Maple Creek.”
― Ben Farthing, The 31st Trick-or-Treater

“The first night I slept in my missing grandpa's apartment, a puppet came out of the wall and stood over my bed.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

“Blood red and pus yellow.”
― Ben Farthing, The Piper's Graveyard

“Mrs. Foster smiled triumphantly. I’d fallen for her wordplay. “I believe I said he came from a story, not that he's still in one. There's power in a parent's love, and just as much power in a parent's fear. So many parents, for so many centuries, all around the world, warning their children to stay in bed or the Boogeyman will get them. Eventually, all those warnings turn into something real.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother's Crib

“When someone dies, grief is a twister trapped in a glass jar. When you realize that you died too, that jar breaks.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found Christmas Lights Slithering Up My Street

“Three children, Bob reminds himself. He hasn’t given up on Mary. He tries not to resent that his wife did long ago.”
― Ben Farthing, The 31st Trick-or-Treater

“Jacob interrupted my thoughts. “There’s clowns in there.” My gut twisted just a little. I placed my hand on the back of his neck. “Can you see someone inside there?” “No, but clowns live in red tents.” He was at the age where he constantly asked about how the world worked. “At the doctor they give you shots?” “Saws are for cutting boards, but hammers are for nails?” “When I’m five, I will be as tall as you?” His declaration about clowns living in red tents must be a law of the universe that he’d extrapolated from a picture book or Disney Plus cartoon.”
― Ben Farthing, I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House