Quotes from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade

Tanya Thompson ·  280 pages

Rating: (10.8K votes)


“Prisons are full of sociopaths and psychopaths, but when questioned, the imprisoned sociopath will honestly admit that they will commit any number of crimes to help a friend.

A friend will help you move; a true friend will help you move a body.

A friend will bail you out of jail; a true friend will be sitting beside you.


Who wouldn’t want to have a true friend? But they sound a lot like a sociopath.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“The absolute truth is a wicked sort of rush. It's far more amusing than any lie. Both have the potential to empower and to hurt, but the truth is emotionally superior. Few people could fault you for it, not when you got ethics on your side. The truth is morally unassailable.

But is has no pity. It is merciless.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“From what I've witness, honesty didn't really make anyone happy. The truth was a punch to the gut, and while you were falling, a knee to the face, then you could lie on the floor and bleed for a spell.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“From what I’d witnessed, honesty didn’t really make anyone happy. The truth was a punch to the gut, and while you were falling, a knee to the face, then you could lie on the floor and bleed for a spell.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“Do you know the difference between neurotics and psychotics?”

“Neurotics build castles in the sky; psychotics move into them.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade



“With the amount of diazepam in me, I should have been content to lie back and let events unfold as they may, and my curiosity did for a moment consider it, but then a punch of panic reminded me that people far saner than I were murdered for less in more conspicuous locations.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“this morning I go to pay for breakfast and there, right there at the Kroger check-out, staring me in the face is a national magazine with your picture on the cover. Counterfeit Countess, it said. In great big, bold type: Counterfeit! Countess! Counterfeit,” he reiterated, “a word interchangeable with forgery and often associated with arrest.” Ah, yes. Patrice had called from Austin and warned me she had sold the story to Woman’s World magazine. “Last sentence?” Mittwede asked. “You know what it is?’ “No, I’ve not seen it.” “Tanya says, ‘I’m going to grow up and be a con artist.’” It had struck me as pretty funny when I said it, but Mittwede had better delivery. I think it was the hysteria. He was saying, “I remember that story. That was like a year and a half ago. You didn’t tell me you were that girl, the Dallas Countess. I already knew the story but I read it again, and I know all the cops have read it again, too. And now your picture is with Passport Services and at the check-out counter. You think federal agents don’t buy groceries? You’re fucking crazy. We’re going to be arrested.” “You maybe need to take a Valium.” “I threw them all in the fire!”   ~~~~~~”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“Do you know the difference between neurotics and psychotics?” He answered before I could speak, “Neurotics build castles in the sky; psychotics move into them.” And”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“In my case, intelligence was a disease that had led to a psychotic episode.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“merriment, making certain they understood it was a game where”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade



“As long as I held the angel mask firmly over my demonic smile, no one doubted my honesty. I”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“A friend will help you move; a true friend will help you move a body. A friend will bail you out of jail; a true friend will be sitting beside you. Who”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“I was an inexperienced fifteen-year-old sociopath who had never had any depth of emotion.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“Even though this was going to be the biggest act I had ever put on, I intended to play it as I always had—pure improvisation, all on impulse, with little more known than I would be playing the part of a countess.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“He was praying for my soul. And he had a great many concerns. I stared at the carpet wondering when it was going to end, telling myself I needed to figure out this religion thing before I went any further, promising I would never make light of it again in front of someone who could put me on my knees.   ~~~~~~”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade



“The truth was a punch to the gut, and while you were falling, a knee to the face, then you could lie on the floor and bleed for a spell. Ed”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


“The absolute truth is a wicked sort of rush. It’s far more amusing than any lie. Both have the potential to empower and to hurt, but the truth is emotionally superior. Few people could fault you for it, not when you’ve got ethics on your side. The truth is morally unassailable. But”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade


About the author

Tanya Thompson
Born place: The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“You can’t tell me
what to do anymore, Travis! I don’t belong to you!”
In the second it took him to turn and face me, his
expression had contorted into anger. He stomped toward
me, planting his hands on the bed and leaning into my face.
“WELL I BELONG TO YOU!” The veins in his neck
bulged as he shouted, and I met his glare, refusing to even
flinch. He looked at my lips, panting. “I belong to you.”
― Jamie McGuire, quote from Beautiful Disaster


“It is silliness to live when to live is torment, and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Othello


“Do devils love each other? Do they walk arm in arm in hell saying, “Ah, you are my friend, how I love you,” things like that to each other?...it was a matter of a concept of evil, wasn't it? All creatures in hell are supposed to hate one another, as all the saved hate the damned, without reservation.”
― Anne Rice, quote from The Vampire Lestat


“Blessed are the meek, for to them we shall say "attaboy".”
― Christopher Moore, quote from Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal


“Intelligence requires first the gift of curiosity.  Without curiosity, who would ask questions?  Second, intelligence is the ability to synthesize.  Facts alone signify little.  Neither are they to be trusted.  Intelligence is the subtle arrangement of that which might or might not be true, the intuitive selection and the weaving of such selections into a pleasing whole that makes for meaning.  Third, intelligence has need of laughter.  Without laughter so much that is bitter and dark is allowed into being.  That which is bitter and dark may be clever, it may even be cunning, but it is never intelligent.  As for wisdom, wisdom is simple.  The wise are able to recognize, and to accept, that not only is one never intelligent enough, but that when all is said and done, one knows exactly nothing.”
― Ki Longfellow, quote from Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria


Interesting books

The Half Brother
(2.4K)
The Half Brother
by Lars Saabye Christensen
Fragments
(21.7K)
Fragments
by Dan Wells
The Pledge
(27.4K)
The Pledge
by Kimberly Derting
The Liars' Club
(50.6K)
The Liars' Club
by Mary Karr
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
(8.3K)
The Varieties of Sci...
by Carl Sagan
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
(10.4K)

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.