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M. R. James Quotes

1862–1936 England

Montague Rhodes James OM (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English biblical scholar, medievalist, palaeographer and bibliographer, but is best remembered for his Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and other works of supernatural fiction.

England
Historians
Short story writers

Random M. R. James quote

3 quotes

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.

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.

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!"

Preface to More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: M. R. James (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.