Theodore Sturgeon · 408 pages
Rating: (340 votes)
“No man can rob successfully over a period of years without pleasing the people he robs.”
― Theodore Sturgeon, quote from The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume II: Microcosmic God
“The baby regarded Mike gravely as she discoursed to it about a poor drowned woofum-wuffums, and did the bad man treat it badly, then. The baby belched eloquently.
“He belches in English!” I remarked.
“Did it have the windy ripples?” cooed Mike. “Give us a kiss, honey lamb.”
The baby immediately flung its little arms around her neck and planted a whopper on her mouth.
“Wow!” said Mike when she got her breath. “Shorty, could you take lessons!”
“Lessons my eye,” I said jealously. “Mike, that’s no baby, that’s some old guy in his second childhood.”
― Theodore Sturgeon, quote from The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume II: Microcosmic God
“His body was tubby but his arms apparently couldn’t understand that, for they were long and scrawny. From his brow to an inch below his eyes, his nose turned up; from there on, down. His short upper lip slanted sharply toward his tonsils, which had the effect of making his chinlessness positively jut.
(...)
The bartender was fascinated by the way the teardrops proceeded down Biddiver’s amazing nose. One drop would dash almost halfway, and then hesitate, daunted by the hump. Then it would be joined by another teardrop, and the two, merging, would surmount the obstacle and slip down to hang glittering over the disappearing lip until a sob came along to shake them off.”
― Theodore Sturgeon, quote from The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume II: Microcosmic God
“Sometimes I sets and thinks, and sometimes I just sets.”
― Theodore Sturgeon, quote from The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume II: Microcosmic God
“Sometimes I sets and thinks, and sometimes I just sets.” The former is easy enough, and is what even an accomplished loafer has to go through before he reaches the latter and more blissful state. It takes years of practice to relax sufficiently to be able to “just set.” I’d learned it years ago. But”
― Theodore Sturgeon, quote from The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume II: Microcosmic God
“Being a nanny is nothing like being a mother!” Sydney exploded. “You worry all the fucking time! Vigilance, intelligence, all your best intentions, none of that matters! It doesn’t stop when you go to sleep, it never stops! You are going to be so swamped if you take on Harry. You won’t sleep at night, you won’t know what to do when he gets sick, hell, you can’t even take him on a fucking carousel! It’s hard work, sometimes it’s hopeless and heartbreaking! You feel like you never get anything right! But look at you, you think you know how to be a mother!”
― Nancy Thayer, quote from Beachcombers
“I learned in that moment that there are different darknesses. That there is ordinary darkness, like the night in the countryside, where, even on a night with no moon, as you stare things loom, take form; and there is another darkness, a darkness so profound you cannot begin to imagine it, cannot conjure it up in your mind. A darkness that blots out all you remember or hope for. A darkness that teaches that all that consoles you is false.”
― Margaret Leroy, quote from The Soldier's Wife
“He carried Claire out of the room and down the steps, feeling the whole way like maybe he should hold onto the railing. “Ja. Nigh-nigh,” Claire said, big blue eyes looking at him. “Uh, sure.” He knew three languages, and none of them were helping him out right now.”
― Laura Kaye, quote from One Night with a Hero
“Odd things happen in a battle, and the human heart has strange and gruesome depths and the human brain still stranger shallows;”
― Nathaniel Philbrick, quote from The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
“Listen to me carefully, child. I do not wish to glorify theft. There are people in this world who think they are better than others, deserve more. People who would rob their grandmother of her last coin and laugh as they did it. I have no time for such people. To move quietly, to be quick of hand and eye, that is a gift. If you use it to hurt others, even in a small way, you betray yourself and everyone around you.”
― Lian Tanner, quote from Museum of Thieves
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