“Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right - a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five. All those potential killers passing their plates.”
“You try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.”
“I don't know what is love about and I'm not sure I believe in it anyway.”
“People can hold out just so long and then they fold.”
“You kill people you hate or you kill in rage or you kill to get even, but you don't kill someone you're indifferent to.”
“A lot of people were mistaken about a lot of things.”
“My own mystery, unplumed, undetected, was sorted into files that were neatly labeled but really didn't say much.”
“There were pieces missing yet but they would fall into place and then maybe the whole of it would make sense.”
“So far, I felt like I had a lapful of confetti and the notion of piecing it all together to make a picture seemed very remote indeed.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of compromise?” “Oh sure,” I said. “That’s when you give away half the things you want. That’s when you give the other guy half of what’s rightfully yours. I’ve done that lots of times. It sucks.”
“Vegas tends to affect me that way, some combination of tension and dread to which my body responds with all the symptoms of incipient flu.”
“The basic characteristics of any good investigator are a plodding nature and infinite patience. Society has inadvertently been grooming women to this end for years.”
“Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they’re right—a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five.”
“I don’t know what love is about and I’m not sure I believe in it anyway.”
“A man in a nylon bikini, with that little knot sticking out in front, isn’t half as interesting as a man in a good-looking business suit. Charlie”
“There just isn’t enough cock in this world to be caught suckin’ and be called anything but a slut for life. The cynic in me would call it a bad habit, but that’d make me a whore in denial and if there’s one thing I am, it’s an honest bitch. Then again, you don’t get famous for being daddy’s little angel, but you can easily fall into the Infamy Bracket by preaching a made-up Bible quote now and again. They say I’m shallow, but I’ve made a living out off diving off the deep end.”
“Oft times, we must fight a battle, if only to learn to lay down our arms.”
“When You Return
Fallen leaves will climb back into trees.
Shards of the shattered vase will rise
and reassemble on the table.
Plastic raincoats will refold
into their flat envelopes. The egg,
bald yolk and its transparent halo,
slide back in the thin, calcium shell.
Curses will pour back into mouths,
letters un-write themselves, words
siphoned up into the pen. My gray hair
will darken and become the feathers
of a black swan. Bullets will snap
back into their chambers, the powder
tamped tight in brass casings. Borders
will disappear from maps. Rust
revert to oxygen and time. The fire
return to the log, the log to the tree,
the white root curled up
in the un-split seed. Birdsong will fly
into the lark’s lungs, answers
become questions again.
When you return, sweaters will unravel
and wool grow on the sheep.
Rock will go home to mountain, gold
to vein. Wine crushed into the grape,
oil pressed into the olive. Silk reeled in
to the spider’s belly. Night moths
tucked close into cocoons, ink drained
from the indigo tattoo. Diamonds
will be returned to coal, coal
to rotting ferns, rain to clouds, light
to stars sucked back and back
into one timeless point, the way it was
before the world was born,
that fresh, that whole, nothing
broken, nothing torn apart.”
“Come closer.” “I…I need to take a shower.” “I can see the grimace on your face when you walk. Come. Here.” I turned to him and shifted my feet across the floor. “It won’t happen again without a prior discussion. And it will be the first and only time that I don’t make you come. Okay?”
“But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.”
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