“And he hated himself and hated her,too, for the ruin they'd made of each other.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Your first family is your blood family and you always be true to that. That means something. But there's another family and that's the kind you go out and find. Maybe even by accident sometimes. And they're as much blood as your first family. Maybe more so, because they don't have to look out for you and they don't have to love you. They choose to.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“What molds us is what maims us.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Do you honestly think Lenin is any different from J.P. Morgan? That you, if you were given absolute power, would behave any differently? Do you know the primary difference between men and gods?...Gods don't think they can become men.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Do you know the primary difference between men and gods? ... Gods don’t think they can become men”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“He was done with every lie he'd ever allowed himself to believe, every lie he'd ever lived, every lie.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“It was one of those sneaky days in late winter where spring came along to get a lay of the land.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“This terrible smallness of men was bigger than him, bigger than anything.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“You‘ve always had a soft heart, son. You just hide it better than most." Danny shrugged. "Starting to hide it from myself, then, I guess." "Always the danger, that. Then one day, sure, you can‘t remember where you left all those pieces you tried so hard to hold on. Or why you work so hard at the holding.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Rumors or no, Thomas, if the men strike, we'll see fecal gravity at work like never before. Ain't a man in this room who won't be covered in shit.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“On September 7th, after the Cubs dropped Game Three, the two teams boarded the Michigan Central together to embark on the twenty-seven hour trip, and Babe Ruth got drunk and started stealing hats.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“But Curtis had come to the table with something they’d never expected, something they would have thought outmoded and out-lived in the modern age: a kind of fundamental righteousness that only the fundamental possessed. Unfettered by doubt, it achieved the appearance of moral intelligence and a resolute conscience. The terrible thing was how small it made you feel, how weaponless. How could you fight righteous rage if the only arms you bore were logic and sanity?”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“You can have two families in this life, Joe, the one you’re born to and the one you build.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Music”—he smiled his glorious smile and raised his index finger—“music speaks for the soul because words are too small.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Luther had passed many a white church in his day, heard them singing their hymns and chanting their "Amens" and seen them gather on a porch or two afterward with their lemonade and piety, but he knew if he ever showed up on their steps, starving or injured, the only response he’d get to a plea for human kindness would be the amen of a shotgun pointed in his face.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Craftsmanship, his Uncle Cornelius had once told him, was just a fancy word for what happened when labor met love.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“he'd never believed that power, in any shape or form, was anything more than the intemperate protrusion on the egomaniacal heart. Since all egomaniacs were insecure to their frightened cores, they this weilded "power" barbarically so the world would not find them out”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“If a man was lucky, he was moving toward something his whole life.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“He was just getting started. He was ready to bust wide open. He could feel it. Big things. Big things were coming. From him. From everywhere. That was the feeling he got lately, as if the whole world had been held in a stable, him included. But soon, soon it was going to bust out all over the place.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Not that Danny seemed intent on fucking it up, just that he was a man after all, and no one knew better than Luther himself how completely a man could step on his own dick when what he thought he wanted contradicted what he knew he needed. The”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“As they've always been. And they don't change just because you want them to.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“need to confess anything to anyone. You go.” “And why would I go?”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Had eyes Luther’d seen before in the white poor—spent his whole life eating rage in place of food. Developed a taste for it he wouldn’t lose no matter how regular he ate for the rest of his life.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Soft waves broke against the rocks.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Your first family is your blood family and you always be true to that. That means something. But there’s another family and that’s the kind you go out and find. Maybe even by accident sometimes. And they’re as much blood as your first family. Maybe more so, because they don’t have to look out for you and they don’t have to love you. They choose to.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Do you know the primary difference between men and gods?” “No, sir.” “Gods don’t think they can become men.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
“Your first family is your blood family and you always be true to that. That means something. But there’s another family and that’s the kind you go out and find. Maybe even by accident sometimes. And they’re as much blood as your first family. Maybe more so, because they don’t have to look out for you and they don’t have to love you. They choose to.” “So”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from The Given Day
Dennis Lehane
Born place: in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, The United States
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“I have something to show you."
He sank down next to me and handed me a sketchbook. I opened it.
And saw the mermaid. She was drawn in colored ink, exquisitely detailed; each scale had a little picture in it: a pyramid, a rocket, a peacock, a lamp. Her torso was patterened red, like a tattoo, like coral. She had a thin strand of seaweed around her neck, with a starfish holding on to the center. Her hair was a tumble of loose black curls. She had my face.
I turned the page.And another and another. There she was fighting a creature that was half human, half octopus. Exploring a cave. Riding a shark. Laughing and petting a stingray that rested on her lap.
"I'm calling her Cora Lia for the moment," Alex told me. "I thought about Corella, but it sounded like cheap dishware."
"She's...amazing."
"She's fierce. Fighting the Evil Sea-Dragon King and his minions."
I traced the red tattoo on her chest. "This is beautiful."
Alex reached into my sweater, pulled the loose neck of the T-shirt away from my shoulder. I didn't stop him. "It looks like coral to me."
He touched me, then,the pad of his thumb tracing the outline of the scar. It felt strange, partly because of the difference in the tissue, but more because in the last few years, the only hands that had touched me there were mine.
I set the book aside carefully. "Guess I don't see what you do."
"That's too bad, because I see you perfectly."
I curved myself into him. "Maybe you're exactly what I need."
"Like there's any doubt?" He buried his face in my neck.I didn't stop him. "So."
"So?"
"We'll kill a few hours, watch the sunrise, have pancakes, and you'll drive home."
"What?"
I felt him smile against my skin. "I got you swimming with sharks. Next on the Conquer Your Fears list is driving a stick shift.Right?"
"One thing at a time," I said. Then, "Oh. Do that again."
In another story, the intrepid heroine would have gone running out and splashed in the surf, hypothermia be damned. She would have driven the Mustang home, booked a haircut, taken up stand-up comedy, and danced on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.
But this was me, and I was moving at my own pace.
Truth: My story started a hundred years ago. There's time.”
― Melissa Jensen, quote from The Fine Art of Truth or Dare
“You could’ve warned me.” Jason’s frown was likewise focused on the old man once again. “You both need to pay better attention,” Sensei said. “I didn’t think I needed to explain that glowing metal is hot.”
― Kyle Timmermeyer, quote from Reintroduction
“I don’t remember waking up that Sunday morning —- perhaps I never slept. Iwas just sitting up in bed watching Sarah sleep. She’d slept naked in my bed but she hadn’t let me have sex with her. I didn’t care. I loved watching her sleep. The light was falling through my window, all over the blue sheets of my old bed, and onto her face. I lifted up the sheets and watched her breasts move with her breath. They seemed to be sleeping themselves.
I hoped that she wouldn’t wake up. I laid the sheet back over her, right up to her chin.
I looked up and out of my room.
I thought, This must be what praying is like.”
― Ethan Hawke, quote from The Hottest State
“Most families have increased the speed of their lives and the number of their activities gradually--even unconsciously--over time. They realize that there are costs to a consistently fast-paced, hectic schedule, but they've adjusted. And looking around, there always seems to be another family that does everything you do, and more, managing to squeeze in skiing, or Space Camp, or French horn lessons on top of everything else. How do they do it?
They do it by never asking 'Why?' Why do our kids need to be busy all of the time? Why does our son, age twelve, need to explore the possibility of space travel? Why do we feel we must offer everything? Why must it all happen now? Why does tomorrow always seem a bit late? Why would we rather squeeze more things into our schedules than to see what happens over time? What happens when we stop, when we have free time?”
― quote from Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
“I think you have forgotten, my young friend, that the blood of the spotless lambs on Passover cover your own sins, too.”
― Tessa Afshar, quote from Pearl in the Sand
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