“And so a person can never promise to love someone forever because you never know what might come up, what terrible thing the person you love might do.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“A single action can cause a life to veer off in a direction it was never meant to go. Falling in love can do that, you think. And so can a wild party. You marvel at the way each has the power to forever alter an individual's compass. And it is the knowing that such a thing can so easily happen, as you did not know before, not really, that has fundamentally changed you and your son.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“I guess that's the point of drinking, to take all the feelings and thoughts and morals away until you are just a body doing what a body will do.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“If one has a good reputation and trusted, the rules can be bent to accommodate.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“His arrival detonated two sheepdogs that began barking even before they emerged at a dead run from behind the garage. ”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“I discover that it is possible to be angry with someone who has died. It is possible to hate yourself for being angry with someone who has died. It is possible to believe that you will die from grief, that somehow your breathing will catch itself up and simply stop. It is possible to believe that you could have stopped the terrible thing that happened at any time, if only you had known.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“The lying started in the eighth grade. Possibly it had begun earlier, and I simply hadn’t noticed.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“If you suspect a problem, there is a problem. Don’t let them get away with even the very first lie. Be vigilant.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Testimony
“she had to fight for qualities that had not been even in her vocabulary. Patience. Self-discipline. Self-control. Self-abnegation. Chastity. Adaptability to others - this above all. This always.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Ishmael was looking at him through narrowed eyes. “This is very important to you, this box.”
“It’s important to the world.”
Ishmael said: “The sun rises, and the sun sets. Sometimes it rains. We live, then we die.” He shrugged.
He would never understand, Wolff thought; but others would.”
― Ken Follett, quote from The Key to Rebecca
“You and McNab sat around talking about women and sports."
"I don't believe we got to sports. He had a woman on his mind."
Eve's sneer vanished. "You talked to him about Peabody? Damn it, Roarke."
"I could hardly slap him back. He's so pitifully smitten."
"Oh." She winced. "Don't use that word."
"It fits. In fact, if he took my advice ..." He turned his wrist, glanced at the unit fastened there. "They should be well into their first date by now."
"Date? Date? Why did you do that? Why did you go and do something like that? Couldn't you leave it alone? They'd have had sex until they burned out on it, and everything would go back to normal."
He angled his head. "That didn't work for us, did it?"
"We don't work together." Then, when his eyes brightened with pure amusement, she showed her teeth. "Officially. You start mixing cops and romance and case files and gooey looks at briefings, you've got nothing but a mess. Next thing you know, Peabody will be wearing lip dye and smelly girl stuff and dragging body skimmers under her uniform."
She dropped her head in her hands. "Then they'll have tiffs and misunderstandings that have nothing whatsoever to do with the job. They'll come at me from both sides, and before you know it, they'll be telling me things I absolutely do not want to know. And when they break it off and decide they hate each other down to the guts, I'll have to hear about that, too, and why they can't possibly work together, or breathe the same air, until I have no choice, absolutely no choice, but to kick both of their asses."
"Eve, your sunny view on life never fails to lift my spirits."
"And -- " She poked him in the chest. "It's all your fault."
He grabbed her finger, nipped it, not so gently. "If that's the case, I'm going to insist they name their first child after me.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Witness in Death
“Le Chat
Je souhaite dans ma maison:
Une femme ayant sa raison.
Un chat passant parmi les livres.
Des amis en toute saison
Sans lesquels je ne peux pas vivre.”
― Guillaume Apollinaire, quote from Alcools
“Merridew might not have been the slenderest of men or the tallest. But he had grip, he had cunning and like many fat men he had unexpected resources of indignation which he was able to turn on like a flood when they were needed.”
― John le Carré, quote from The Russia House
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