“A little style is a good thing, but you can’t trust a person who won’t be ugly in front of you.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“No matter where you go, poor people have the capacity to endure. Some people even compliment us on it, as if endurance is all we can achieve.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Some people act like it’s a sign of weakness if you want to belong, but I think most human beings yearn to find at least one open door in their lifetime.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“The poor aren't defeated. We're domesticated.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Oppression doesn’t make people noble. Give any of us a little comfort, and we’ll kill to keep it. The despised become despicable.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“It’s easier to hold onto a bad idea if you never share it, and it’s harder to defend one if you let it out.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“The ancient Egyptians believed the god Anubis met each of us on the other side, and that he stood before a great scale on which our hearts were set. There each was weighed, tested, for its worth.
Was this the heart I wanted measured?”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“There are people who say life is dull. Just a series of mundane events. But I can’t agree. Things happen. Bet on that.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Don’t focus on the mishaps; consider the pleasures instead.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“I don’t have much faith in institutions, but I still believe in people.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Before September 11, the skinny, jittery black guy made security think one thing: drug mule. But after the attacks, security only cared about bombs. So it was the Arab guys, the Puerto Ricans and Indians, even white men, that got searched. I was too dark to make people worry on a plane. Still caused fear in elevators.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“I’m always looking for the monster. Not even just in horror. I want them in everything. Just give me the monsters. Logical conclusions don’t satisfy. Monsters satisfy, absolutely.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“The success of any society must be judged by the life of its worst off. No other calculation will do.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“The shame wasn't in discovering that she had a price; everyone had one of those. Maybe it was just in learning, so concretely, that this was what she cost.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Time alone is pornography for people with families.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Human beings are no damn good,” he said. “We are even worse than animals. We like ...”
He trailed off, cleared his throat, but his voice hardly reached a whisper.
“We like monsters,” he said.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“I don’t know what to say about the hygiene of the male species.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Fuck the meek. The despised will inherit the earth!”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“People hear that you grew up religious, and they can’t imagine you’d have a complex relationship with faith. If you believe one part, you must believe it all. But who gets more chances to see the absurdities than the devout? An answer that’s satisfying on Sunday becomes contradictory by Wednesday night. Belief is a wrestling match that lasts a lifetime.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“A little style is a good thing, but you can't trust someone who won't be ugly in front of you.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“This was one benefit of being a grown man and not a kid: I wanted to impress this woman, but not to the point of getting myself killed.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Seeing America by bus is like touring the Louvre in a Porta Potti.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“And you can fool yourself if you’re raised in New York. Think that somehow your birthplace alone makes you cosmopolitan. But it isn’t true. We’re rubes too.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“Think of King Jesus as our greatest doubter. Who saw the order of society and taught us to defy it. Who saw the ugly urges in ourselves and taught us to resist them. As we navigate through the powerful tides, doubt is our rudder.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“It’s frightening to step into a place and understand you’re a victim. I’m not talking about a bad feeling or a vague sense. I mean knowing. A quick fire runs through your heart and limbs. You go stiff because you’re aware something’s about to happen, but you can’t think clearly enough to escape.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“The poor aren’t defeated, we’re domesticated.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
“It's hard to fake faith, in yourself or anything else.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine
Victor LaValle
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“Chase took a long breath. “There’s no way around saying this, other than just coming straight out with it. I’ve been an idiot—an ass. Time and time again, I’ve done the wrong thing by you.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“And this whole time I’d been trying to do the right thing by not being with you. I didn’t want to betray Mitch by hooking up with his little sister. I didn’t want to somehow mess up our friendship either, because you have been such a huge part of my life.” He took a deep breath. “And I never wanted to be like my father—to treat you like he treated my mom. And it was stupid—I get that now. Chad was right. Father never loved our mother, but it’s different for me—it’s different for us. It always has been.”
The whole time he spoke, he never looked away from her. She opened her mouth to say something but he rushed ahead. “But all I’ve managed to do is screw things up. That night in the club…I wasn’t drunk.”
Madison shifted uncomfortably. “I know.”
“It was a lame excuse, and I’m sorry. That night—I should’ve told you how I really felt. And every night thereafter,” he said, taking a step forward. “I should’ve told you how I felt the night in that damn cabin, too.”
Her heart swelled as hope grew in a tangle of emotions she could never unravel. All of this seemed surreal. Tears rushed her eyes as she reached behind her, grasping the edges of her desk. “And how do you feel?”
Chase’s smile revealed those deep dimples she loved, and when he spoke, his voice was husky. “Aw hell, Maddie, I’m not good at this kind of stuff. You…you are my world. You’ve always been my world, ever since I can remember.”
At Bridget’s soft inhale, Madison placed a trembling hand over her mouth.
Stepping forward, he placed a hand over hers, gently pulling it away from her mouth. “It’s the truth. You are my everything. I love you. I have for longer than I realized. Please tell me my boneheadedness hasn’t screwed things up beyond repair for us.”
― J. Lynn, quote from Tempting the Best Man
“Fuego para su frío, hielo para su fuego”
― Karen Marie Moning, quote from The Fever Series
“Why is it, Miranda,’ she whispered, ‘that such a sweet pretty creature is a schoolteacher – of all dreary things in the world . . .?”
― Joan Lindsay, quote from Picnic at Hanging Rock
“Hisli's tail flicked to the side as the arrow buried itself in the sand just inches behind her rear hooves. But Ansel didn't dare look over he shoulder. She kept riding, and she did not stop. Celeana lowered her bow and watched until Ansel disappeared beyond the horizon. One arrow, that had been her promise. But she's also promised Ansel that she's had twenty minutes to get out of range.
Celeana had fired after twenty-one.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from The Assassin and the Desert
“Imagination is the politics of dreams; imagination turns every word into a bottle rocket. . . . Imagine every day is Independence Day and save us from traveling the river changed; save us from hitchhiking the long road home. Imagine an escape. Imagine that your own shadow on the wall is a perfect door. Imagine a song stronger than penicillin. Imagine a spring with water that mends broken bones. Imagine a drum which wraps itself around your heart. Imagine a story that puts wood in the fireplace.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
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