“Some ghosts haunt you for life. The best you can do is make room on the couch and get used to living with them.”
“What’s it say about a person when they know they have a problem but never do anything to fix it?” Eric smiled. “That they’re human.”
“You love a woman, you love a man, you love a tomato. God is happy, because he created love.»”
“Coming out is something you never stop doing. You start by telling your friends and family. Then you tell new acquaintances or coworkers who invite you out for a drink. Even the telemarketers who call and ask if my wife is home. You don’t have to tell everyone you meet, of course, but coming out is something that accompanies your entire life.”
“Yeah, and I honestly don’t hold it against you anymore. Ben’s an amazing guy, and I bet losing someone like that hurt pretty damn bad. You both paid for what happened, which is a shame, because love shouldn't have a price.”
“To the untrained eye, Ben had nothing, at least by the bizarre rules that governed high school. But really, Ben was one of the few who wasn't pretending, one of the few who was free.”
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
“Popular kids are just a powerful union of needy, insecure losers.”
“So,” Eric said between bites, “do you carry a photo of Ben in your wallet?” Tim snorted. “Are you kidding? I was way too careful to have something like that. I don’t have a single photo of him anywhere.” He frowned at his plate. “I kind of regret that. His face gets a little fuzzier in my mind every year that goes by. Sometimes I worry I’ll forget it completely.” “You won’t,” Eric said. “You may not remember every detail, but most of it stays with you.”
“Ben wore the same goofy smile as in the photo. Take that, new guy! I can make him happy too!”
“The more we love, the more we fear. Rejection, or what others might think, these are just the beginning. In a perfectly happy relationship, we fear losing the other person to disease or chance.”
“Tim considered the school. “Maybe I want to walk down the hallway with you, hand in hand, like I should have done a long time ago.” Ben’s eyes softened. “You don’t have to do this.” “I want to.”
“I've always been in love with the idea of being in love, if that counts.”
“What did couples talk about after so many years together?”
“Coming out is something you never stop doing. You start by telling your friends and family. Then you tell new acquaintances or coworkers who invite you out for a drink. Even the telemarketers who call and ask if my wife is home. You don't have to tell everyone you meet, of course, but coming out is something that accompanies your entire life.”
“It's hotter than Satan's butt crack out here.”
“anonymity makes people honest about what they want, but not what they are.”
“Tim was on his feet and out the door, leg muscles pushing hard against the concrete when he saw Ben was already halfway down the block. Not this time! Tim was running to him, not away. The world seemed to move in slow motion, as if no possible speed was fast enough to close the distance.”
“Never. You'll simply ask out the person you're interested in, and they'll say yes or no. Preferring guys won't be any more controversial than favoring blonde hair or dark skin. We already use the right term when we say sexual preference, but for now people treat it like an identity.”
“Waiting should always be avoided. Good or bad, confronting the future is better than torturous anticipation or crippling dread.”
“Love, or even just infatuation, has a diminishing effect on intelligence.”
“The best thing about any grandmother’s house is the smell—like baby powder and fresh flowers, or maybe freshly washed sheets hanging in the sun, or sugar cookies cooling on a wire rack. If scientists could reproduce that scent and pump it into the open air, wars would cease, and whole armies would trade their guns for toys.”
“Artemis grabbed her shoulders, for once abandoning his shell of icy composure. "Holly, Holly, speak to me. Your finger is it okay?"
Holly wiggled her fingers, then curled them into a fist.
"I think so," she said, and whacked Artemis right between the eyes. The surprised boy landed in a snowdrift for the third time that day.
Holly winked at an amazed butler.
"Now we're even," she said.
Commander Root didn't have many treasured memories. But in future days, when things were at their grimmest, he would conjure up this moment and have a quiet chuckle.”
“By the time the human stuck his key in the lock of his third-floor apartment door and pushed it open, Dante was shoving him into the dark, tossing the guy across the spartan living room.
“Motherfu—” Sullivan came up out of his crash on one knee, then froze, his face caught in a wedge of light from the bare bulb glowing in the hall outside.
Something flashed in the human’s eyes, something beneath his immediate fear. Recognition, Dante thought, figuring he probably remembered them from the club the other night. But there was anger there too. Pure male animosity. Dante could smell it seeping out of the human’s pores.
He slowly got to his feet. “What the fuck’s going on?”
“How about you tell us,” Dante said, willing a lamp to come on as he strode farther into the place. Behind him, Chase closed and locked the door. “I’m pretty sure you can guess this isn’t a social call.”
“What do you want?”
“We’ll start with information. It’ll be up to you how we go about getting it.”
“What kind of information?” His gaze swung anxiously between Dante and Chase. “I don’t know who you guys are, and I don’t have any idea what you’re talking abou—”
“Now, see,” Dante said, cutting him off with a chuckle, “that kind of bullshit answer puts us off to a real bad start.” As the human’s right hand slid into the deep pocket of his down-filled vest, Dante smirked. “You wanna convince me you’re an idiot, go ahead and pull that gun out. Just so we’re clear, I really hope you do.”
Ben Sullivan’s face blanched as white as his apartment’s unpainted walls. He pulled his hand back out, nice and slow. “How did you—”
“You expecting somebody besides us tonight?”
“In der Morgensonne schlenderte er über den Kurfürstendamm, kaufte sich an einem Kiosk einen Baedeker und nahm ein Taxi zum verwüsteten Reichstag, wo man emsig an der Restaurierung arbeite. Das Gebäude war barhäuptig: die große Mittelkuppel – Bismarcks Helm – war verschwunden, und als er sich umdrehte, sah er am anderen Ende der großen Wiese im Tiergarten das neue Kongreßzentrum, das exakt die Form von Hitlers Mütze hatte.”
“...these are the problems of the modern U.S. combat soldier, the constant worry about overstepping the mark and an American media that delights in trying to knock us down. Which we have done nothing to deserve. Except, perhaps, love our country and everything it stands for.”
“A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.”
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