# Quote — Richard Matheson, I Am Legend

> A woman. Alive. In the daylight.
>
> He stood, mouth partly open, gaping at the woman. She was young, he could see now as she came closer; probably in her twenties. She wore a wrinkled and dirty white dress. She was very tan, her hair was red. In the dead silence of the afternoon Neville thought he heard the crunch of her shoes in the long grass.
>
> I’ve gone mad. The words presented themselves abruptly. He felt less shock at that possibility than he did at the notion that she was real. He had, in fact, been vaguely preparing himself for just such a delusion. It seemed feasible. The man who died of thirst saw mirages of lakes. Why shouldn’t a man who thirsted for companionship see a woman walking in the sun?

- Author: [Richard Matheson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson.md)
- Book: [I Am Legend](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson/i-am-legend.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Matheson#I_Am_Legend_(1954)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson/i-am-legend/a-woman-alive

## More from this book

> Robert Neville looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them; he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain. ... Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever.
>
> I am legend.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson/i-am-legend/robert-neville-looked.md)

> They were strange, the facts about them: their staying inside by day, their avoidance of garlic, their death by stake, their reputed fear of crosses, their supposed dread of mirrors.
>
> Take that last, now. According to legend, they were invisible in mirrors, but he knew that was untrue. As untrue as the belief that they transformed themselves into bats. That was a superstition that logic, plus observation had easily disposed of. ‘It was equally foolish to believe that they could transform themselves into wolves. Without a doubt there were vampire dogs; he had seen and heard them outside his house at night. But they were only dogs.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson/i-am-legend/they-were-strange.md)

> Sometimes he had indulged in daydreams about finding someone. More often, though, he had tried to adjust to what he sincerely believed was the inevitable — that he was actually the only one left in the world. At least in as much of the world as he could ever hope to know.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson/i-am-legend/sometimes-he-had.md)