Quotes from Croak

“Life isn't fair. Why should death be any different?”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“The list of scars my students have sustained at the hand of your daughter grows longer each week. Poor Logan Hochspring's arm will forever carry an imprint of her dental records!"
"You bit him?" Lex's father said.
"He called me a wannabe vampire. What was I supposed to do?"
"Oh, I don't know--maybe not bite him?”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Seriously?" she said with a glance of skepticism. Driggs and this nerdlinger? "You guys are best friends?"
Ferbus looked up briefly to give her a smug look. "We prefer the term heterosexual life mates.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“She wished, as almost all kids wish at one point or another, that she could turn into a pterodactyl and fly away and never come back.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Let me tell you something right now, something that I don't want you ever to forget: Starbucks is an abomination."
Lex was speechless. She now believed that there was no way in a million years this man could possibly be a blood relative.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Momentarily forgetting how wind works, Lex tried spitting at him. This failed”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Let me go!" She tore off a mirror and brandished it in his face. "I mean it! I don't want to go to your godforsaken hellbarn, you retarded psycho farmer!”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“The boy took a step toward her. Lex jumped back, her contentious instincts kicking in. "Stop right there," she warned. "I punch, I kick, and I feel compelled to warn you, I can bite harder than the average Amazonian crocodile."

He smirked and leaned against the doorframe. "And I feel compelled to warn YOU that the bathroom we now share has a leaky ceiling," he said, pointing up. "There's an umbrella under the sink, if you're going to be in here for a while.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Hey there cutie," he said. "What's your name?"
Lex rolled her eyes and turned toward the window. "Kill me."
"Kimmy? I'm Steve," he went on undeterred.
"Cram it, Steve”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“For a moment she could have sworn she was standing in one of those history-comes-alive museums--the kind that feature animatronic robots, the narration stylings of James Earl Jones, and the sort of exhibits that invade children's nightmares for years to come. But instead of a cyborgish John Wilkes Booth discharging his deadly bullet into the back of a plastic Lincoln's head, a very real version of the assassin was engaged in a furious arm-wrestling match with Elvis Presley.

Lincoln was watching the tussle, amused. "Come on, John," he said. "You can do better than that."

"He's all talk," Elvis whispered back.

"Silence!" roared Booth. "I'm trying to concentrate!"

Lincoln rolled his eyes.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Just because it’s the biggest secret in the history of the world doesn’t make it any less true.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“A crash of cymbals exploded in her ear. She opened her eyes to behold Driggs clanging them vigorously, a mischievous grin on his face and a large bruise surrounding his eye.

"I hope, for the sake of your fertility, you're wearing a cup," she warned through clenched teeth."
"Come on," he said, jumping onto to the mattress. "It's time for work."

Lex moaned. "How are you so awake already?"
"If you recall, I eat a lot of chocolate.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Should she go on? Or drop it? Maybe this was one of those things that people should keep to themselves, like a hatred of baby pandas or a passion for polka music. Everyone needs a secret or two.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Ah, bribery." He grinned at his niece. "is there anything it can't do?”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Elysia!" Driggs interrupted. "Slow the hell down."

She grinned at Lex. "Sorry. I talk a lot when I get excited."

"That's okay," Lex said with an impish nod. "We all have our flaws. Driggs here loves Titanic."

"Really??"

Driggs folded his arms and studied the girls. "I can already see the ramifications of an alliance between you two. And they are troublesome.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“And what in the name of all this is disturbing did you mean when you said you're going to teach me how to Kill people?"

He snickered. "You didn't really think you were going to spend the whole summer milking cows, did you?”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“He exuded the air of someone who hated this earth and everything on it and would be much happier if it just broke free of its orbit and hurled itself into the sun.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“What?" he asked.

"Nothing. Your bony hands of death amuse me, that's all."

"Wait until yours look the same," he said, preparing to scythe.

"Wait - what?" She batted the sapphire blade out of his hands. "What do you mean? Is that why everyone around here has such creepy fingers?"

"Yeah." He bent down to pick up his scythe. "I don't know why it happens, though. Probably the same weird reason our hair goes all wonky."

"What?" she barked, knocking his scythe to the ground once more.

"Stop that!"

"What happens to our hair?"

He gestured to the disaster atop his head. "You think I want to look like a drunken hedgehog all the time? It's from hanging out in the ether so much. It messes with your follicles or something. Doesn't happen to everyone, but I can assure you that Ferbus's wasn't always the color of a prison jumpsuit, Zara wasn't born Silvylocks, and Mort's been rocking the electrocution look for years. Look, yours has gotten straighter already."

Lex ran a hand through her hair. It had lost some of its poofyness. There had been so many other circuses of insanity to deal with that she hadn't even noticed. It was calm, manageable, even - she shuddered to think it - sleek and shiny.

"Oh my God," she said in disgust. "I'm a shampoo commercial.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“What happened to YOU old partner?" Lex asked him. "Suicide I take it?"

He frowned. "Worse - business school. Can you believe it? Two years of Croak, then one day the kid decided he wants to be the next Donald Trump. So we threw him in a car, dropped him off near Woodstock and now he think he spent the past two years in a drug-addled haze at some hippie commune.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Hey, one week, huh, Lex?" he said, tossing her a Cuff. "Here's your graduation gift."

"Sweet." she slid it onto her wrist. It felt cool, with a slight vibration to it. "Thanks."

"So, you feel all trained up? Driggs teach you everything he knows?"

"Yes. I'm now fully qualified to operate a can opener."

Driggs let out a sigh. "What a lovable scamp you've bestowed upon our fair town, Mort."

"My pleasure," he said to Driggs.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“There comes a time in every young girl's life when she is instructed by a complete stranger to scale a tall ladder for dinner atop a roof, and in almost every case the best thing to do is refuse and run home to call the asylum from which the stranger escaped.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Then something happened in the next two seconds, but neither Lex nor Driggs would be able to recall exactly what. All they knew was that after it was over, their eyes met once again, this time in horror.
“Why did you just kiss my ear?” Lex asked nervously.
Driggs winced. “Because you turned your head.”
“I thought that tree . .  . moved.”
“Oh.”
Another moment of silence.
Driggs bit his lip. “Do you mind if I try again?”
She swallowed. “Okay.”
Then something else happened, and this time both Lex and Driggs would remember exactly what it was.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“I wouldn't go around telling people about these shocks of yours."

"Why not?" Lex asked.

"It's like announcing to the would you have crabs. It's embarrassing, and no one'll ever shake your hand again.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Poison? Drugs?"

"No chemical works that instantly. You saw the guy - it looked like he was still reading his program."

"Then what, magical fairy dust? Vulcan death grip?"

"Focus, Lex. Wake up that lonely brain cell.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Lex froze. "What boy?"

"That boy I saw you with, before you came up to ring the bell. The windows of this house are fully functional, you know."

Lex didn't even bother with a lie this time. "His name is Driggs. He's my partner."

"Ah, partner. How very Law and Order."

"Shut up, that's just how it works."

"I see. And have you two had a romp in the hay yet, or would that upset Mr. Frizzle the rooster?”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Why, you want me to hook you two up?"

Cordy eyed her, then let out a grunt. "Could you? Michael Thorley turned out to be an assclown, and the rest of this place is nothing but a barren wasteland of undateability. The only guy who's shown the slightest amount of interest in me this summer is Mr. Papadopoulos on the third floor of the nursing home. He says I have the ass of a Russian call girl."

"Ah, senility.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“But they were her parents! Putting up with all of her crap was their official job - they couldn't wriggle out of it! She tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat. How could they do this to her?”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“Are we going to unload these things?" she asked, a trace of nervousness creeping into her voice. "They're starting to gross me out."

"They're just souls."

"But they're warm. Like eggs. I feel like a spawning salmon.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

“The festivities were broken up by Pandora, who lobbed a scoop of ice cream at Lex that landed on the table with a sticky sploosh.
“Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya!” she screeched, jigging back into the kitchen.”
― Gina Damico, quote from Croak

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“It is an ancient and venerated custom of people in my country to start a story by praying to a Higher Power.
"I guess, Your Excellency, that I too should start off by kissing some god's arse.
"Which god's arse, though? There are so many choices.
"See, the Muslims have one god.
"The Christians have three gods.
"And we Hindus have 36,000,004 divine arses to choose from.”
― Aravind Adiga, quote from The White Tiger

“However, the majority of women are neither harlots nor courtesans; nor do they sit clasping pug dogs to dusty velvet all through the summer afternoon. But what do they do then? and there came to my mind’s eye one of those long streets somewhere south of the river whose infinite rows are innumerably populated. With the eye of the imagination I saw a very ancient lady crossing the street on the arm of a middle-aged woman, her daughter, perhaps, both so respectably booted and furred that their dressing in the afternoon must be a ritual, and the clothes themselves put away in cupboards with camphor, year after year, throughout the summer months. They cross the road when the lamps are being lit (for the dusk is their favourite hour), as they must have done year after year. The elder is close on eighty; but if one asked her what her life has meant to her, she would say that she remembered the streets lit for the battle of Balaclava, or had heard the guns fire in Hyde Park for the birth of King Edward the Seventh. And if one asked her, longing to pin down the moment with date and season, but what were you doing on the fifth of April 1868, or the second of November 1875, she would look vague and say that she could remember nothing. For all the dinners are cooked; the plates and cups washed; the children sent to school and gone out into the world. Nothing remains of it all. All has vanished. No biography or history has a word to say about it. And the novels, without meaning to, inevitably lie.

All these infinitely obscure lives remain to be recorded, I said, addressing Mary Carmichael as if she were present; and went on in thought through the streets of London feeling in imagination the pressure of dumbness, the accumulation of unrecorded life, whether from the women at the street corners with their arms akimbo, and the rings embedded in their fat swollen fingers, talking with a gesticulation like the swing of Shakespeare’s words; or from the violet-sellers and match-sellers and old crones stationed under doorways; or from drifting girls whose faces, like waves in sun and cloud, signal the coming of men and women and the flickering lights of shop windows. All that you will have to explore, I said to Mary Carmichael, holding your torch firm in your hand.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from A Room of One's Own

“This private estate was far enough away from the explosion so that its bamboos, pines, laurel, and maples were still alive, and the green place invited refugees—partly because they believed that if the Americans came back, they would bomb only buildings; partly because the foliage seemed a center of coolness and life, and the estate’s exquisitely precise rock gardens, with their quiet pools and arching bridges, were very Japanese, normal, secure; and also partly (according to some who were there) because of an irresistible, atavistic urge to hide under leaves.”
― John Hersey, quote from Hiroshima

“Mr. Head stood very still and felt the action of mercy touch him again but this time he knew that there were no words in the world that could name it. He understood that it grew out of agony, which is not denied to any man and which is given in strange ways to children. He understood it was all a man could carry into death to give his Maker and he suddenly burned with shame that he had so little of it to take with him. He stood appalled, judging himself with the thoroughness of God, while the action of mercy covered his pride like a flame and consumed it.”
― Flannery O'Connor, quote from A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.' Whatever happens is to His good purpose and for His glory. I am not afraid.”
― Francine Rivers, quote from A Voice in the Wind

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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.

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