Quotes from The Tied Man

“The momentary discomfort was nothing at all compared to the realisation that she was finding refuge in my flawed embrace.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“I don't expect you to be like them. Don't want you to be. It's not them I want, it's you. From the moment we met, it's only been you.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“What did you call me?"

"Ah. A chuisle. Gaelic. 'My darling'. I prefer the proper translation, mind you."

"Which is?"

He gave a bashful smile. "My pulse.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Oh, Jesus Christ on a fuckin’ pushbike.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“But at the end of the day, everything I do costs me. The only question is how much.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“She wore a cantilevered, augmented-breast-skimming satin dress the colour of egg-yolk. Somewhere in deepest Nebraska, a prom queen two sizes smaller than Selena was wondering where the fuck her outfit had disappeared to.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Even at this ridiculous hour, and clad in a faded blue t-shirt and ancient pyjama pants, he looked like something Michelangelo might reject for being too beautiful”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“It was the first time I had ever felt guilt at finding a man attractive.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“In a fortnight Lilith had figured out more about me than anyone had ever cared to know, and I could only hope that she would hold it gently.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“God, I’ve just figured out what’s missing – you ditched the hallowed Albermarle Teddy Bear!’

I nodded.   ‘Banished to a dark cupboard for all eternity.’

‘You cold-hearted bastard.’

‘Give me a hot water bottle any day.   At least they have some appreciable function.   Not like that pathetic pile of overpriced fake fur and anthropomorphic bullshit I locked in the wardrobe.’

‘You have serious teddy bear issues.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“I can’t do this alone, Finn. I need you beside me.”
Nobody had ever said that to me.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“I’ve got one of those horrendous personalities that needs to know every detail about whatever I’m working on.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Just out of interest, what did you make of my Finn?

Probably the most beautiful man I've ever seen.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“I didn’t know what the hell to say to that. I just gave an ungrateful sigh of exasperation and pulled the sweater over my head.
‘It’s just your colour,’ Henry enthused.
‘And you can fuck right off,’ I said.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“The summer I met Lilith Bresson, I had begun to die. Not physically, you understand. I had never been that lucky. But each day a little more of my soul disappeared.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“It was easy to forget that other people lived in a world where rules and laws and common sense could keep you safe. A world where, if you did the right thing you were allowed to get on with your life in whichever way you chose.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“The momentary discomfort was nothing at all compared to the realization that she was finding refuge in my flawed embrace.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Lilith Bresson, innocent of everything except having a bastard for a father, took her new fate with a calm that was terrifying.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“[...] Lilith turned on me with the same fury I had watched her unleash on that fat bastard on the TV and I seriously feared for my balls.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“The tricky bit was figuring out where we were because I couldn’t imagine anyone, God included, daring to send Lilith Bresson to hell.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“On balance, I’d say I prefer performing in front of a few thousand adoring women, but ‘Security Guard at the Castle of the Damned’ comes a pretty close second.   I should be fine, as long as there are no ghosts.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“You, my delightful Irish friend, terrify me," Gabriel said, and pulled the blanket over his head like a shawl. "You look like you've just stepped off the catwalk, you've got the stare of a serial killer, and you're clearly one of the hardest bastards I've ever met. Basically, I'm terribly keen to ensure that I'm never on your wrong side for the remained of my existence-will that do for now, you fucking sociopath?”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Well golly fucking gosh how terribly delightful for her. Now get out.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“What I did know was that as we sheltered from our own private tempests, something immutable happened to the bond between Finn Strachan and me, and our unnamed relationship shifted into something far stronger than either of us knew how to control. If I'd had the energy, I might have halted it there, kept my face turned away and driven on through the storm. But right then, I needed the haven that Finn offered more than oxygen.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Congratulations on your moral bankruptcy, Ms Fenworth.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“I have this prodigious talent for painting the person behind the facade, but with Blaine the facade is all there is left - just artifice, guile, and an expensive pair of silicone tits.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Normally the first to read the small print, I had deliberately hidden away any paperwork that referred to this ridiculous task, and now I found myself kissing goodbye to a laptop, a mobile phone and two fully-loaded MP3 players, not to mention the halogen light that allowed me to work through the night if I so desired.   I stared disconsolately out over the shimmering tarmac and   wondered if I might be granted permission to shave my legs.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Each move seemed to take a lifetime: more than anything, I needed him to know that this was all done with his consent; that at any moment he could say 'no' or move away and everything would still be okay. But he stayed, his eyes never leaving my face.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“Finn gave a soft laugh. 'What's so funny?' 'I think you're the first person to actually apologise for inflicting pain. Usually it's someone's hobby.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

“The fanciful theory that a person's life was etched on their physical form - be it despair, happiness, or in this case sheer depravity - was entirely disproved by Blaine. That, or she already had a huge portrait or herself slowly decaying in the attic.”
― Tabitha McGowan, quote from The Tied Man

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“Our faith in victory had been unquestioning, its opposite, defeat, had no currency among us. Victory was possible, that was all. It would be easy or difficult, quick or prolonged, but it would be victory. So here came the disturbing Hoosier, displaying the other side of the coin, showing us defeat. It shook us. And it was from this moment that we dated the feeling of what is called expendability. All armies have expendable items, that is, a part or unit the destruction of which will not be fatal to the whole. In some ordeals, a man might consider his finger expendable, but not his hand, or in extremity his arm but not his heart. There are expendable items which may be lost or destroyed in the field either in peace or in war without their owner being required to replace them. A rifle is so expendable or a cartridge belt. So are men. Men are the most expendable of all. Hunger, the jungle, the Japanese, not one nor all of these could be quite as corrosive as the feeling of expendability. This was no feeling of dedication because it was absolutely involuntary. I do not doubt, that if the Marines had asked for volunteers for an impossible campaign such as Guadalcanal, almost everyone now fighting would have stepped forward. But that is sacrifice, that is voluntary. Being expended robs you of the exultation, the self-abnegation, the absolute freedom of self-sacrifice. Being expended puts one in the roll of victim rather than sacrificer, and there is always something begrudging in this. I doubt if Isaac would have accepted the knife of his father, Abraham, entirely without reproach yet, for the same master he would have gone gladly to his death a thousand times. The world is full of the sacrifices of heroes and martyrs, but there was only one victim. If we were to be victims, we were as firmly secured to our role as Isaac bound to the faggots. No day passed without extenuating it.”
― Robert Leckie, quote from Helmet for My Pillow

“Once I started I couldn’t put it down. It was so addictive . . . like a train wreck.”
― Katie Klein, quote from Cross My Heart

“So this is pain. So this is wretchedness. So this is misery. I never knew. -Jack”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from Keys to the Repository

“I'd learned balance is internal; that there really wasn’t one set formula for how to live your life nor how to handle the wife-mother-businesswoman juggling act. Maybe it was just being tuned in to every role and knowing when one or the other needed to be the focus.”
― Kaira Rouda, quote from Here, Home, Hope

“He hated to be alone, but people bored him.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality

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