Quotes from The Viper's Nest

“Let's scope the place out," he suggested, heading around the side of the building, "and be careful in the bushes."
"Why?" Amy asked.
"This is South Africa, dude," Dan replied. "Where cobras come from. And not the hot ones, like Ian.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Amy Cahill didn't believe in omens. But black snow was falling, the earth was rumbling beneath her feet, her brother was meowing, and her uncle Alistair was prancing on the beach in pink pajamas.
She had to admit, the signs were not promising.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“You should climb around inside my brain, Dan. It's like this dark room surrounded by quicksand."
"I know what you mean," her brother said quietly. "I hate being in my brain sometimes. I have to get out."
"What do you do?" Amy asked.
Dan shrugged "I go to other places. My toes. My shoulders. But mostly here." He tapped his chest and immediately reddened. "I know. It's stupid."
"Not really," Amy said. "I wish I could do that, too.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“The boy smiled -- mostly at Amy.
"Sorry, her heart belongs to Ian Kabra," Dan said, except that something in her expression made him realize her heart didn't belong at all to Ian
right now.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Okay, listen up, dudes. We have to book. Yesterday, when I find you guys are, like, AWOL? I, like, freak. Yelling at everybody–where are they, why did you let them leave–the hotel people are, like, whaaaa? Anyway, I pack up all your stuff, figuring I may never see the place again, and down in the lobby I find my man Arif. I'm, like, help me, and he takes all of our stuff to this launch–and then we're halfway across the sea when Arif gets this radio message, and he's all excited, but I don't know what he's saying until he's, like, 'POLICE!' in English. And we see these cop cars and somebody's getting a big old boat, so we're, like, sayonara, only in Indonesian, and we tool out into this boat-traffic jam to try to loose them, and I'm hearing these radio reports that are half English–there's been a fire and somebody's dead, yada yada, and I'm totally wigging out–Why did you do that? Why did you and your sister leave me in a hotel without even a note?”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“How do you know, Dan? You were so young when they died. Do you really remember them?"
"Not in my mind," Dan replied, gazing at the passing scenery. "But everyplace else...”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Well, then, happy news! Hakuna matata and all that," Ian said cheerily. "We'll rest and have a fine dining moment while we wait." He looked around at the various airport fast-food choices. "Well, er, we'll rest...”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Ian nodded. Do not question her, he told himself. Not when she is in a state like this.
Still, it was a pity to attack them with such force. Especially the girl, Amy. He'd never met anyone like her. Shy. Gentle. With an exciting edge of hostility. So unlike the girls back home, who flung themselves at him so often that his chauffeurs traveled with first-aid kits.
Doesn't she know better? Isn't she smart enough to stop the hunt?
It was the boy and the au pair. He was a pint-sized hothead. She was a collection of piercings and piggishness. If only Amy and Dan had stayed trapped in the cave in Seoul, at least long enough to get discouraged. Why did they antagonize Mother?
They don't know what it's like to live with her.
"Right you are," Ian said. "They're asking for it. Heaven forbid they listen to the brains of the outfit."
"And that would be–?" Isabel asked.
Ian looked away. "Well, the sister, I'd say. Amy."
He felt a smile inching across his face.
"Ian?" His mother grabbed his wrist. "If you are having the inkling of a shadow of a thought..."
"Mother!" Ian could feel the blood rushing to his face. "How could you suspect for a moment...?”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Dan's skin was beginning to lose color. "Oh, har-har. A library, right? Just to make me crazy. 'Cause there's no reason we would go to a library. Right? I mean, we don't need to research Peoria, do we?"
Amy began heading for the building. "Not Peoria. Something else."
"Not funny, Amy!" Dan called as she pushed open the heavy brass doors. "Amy...Amy?”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“When the guy turned around, Amy began stuttering. Silently. It was a feat only Amy could manage, and only Dan could notice.
And it only happened in front of boys who looked like this one. He had brown hair and caramel-colored eyes, like Dan's friend Nick Santos, who
made all the sixth-grade girls turn into blithering idiots when he looked their way--in fact, would even say Watch, lean make them turn into blithering
idiots, and then he'd do it. Only older.
"He. Is. Hot," Nellie said under her breath.
"You too?" Dan hissed.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Rock star do not jump!" The launch was cutting sharply, its skipper calling out a phrase that bore no relationship to the English language as Amy knew it.
"Rock star in a hurry!" Nellie replied, one foot on the boat's gunwale.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“"Whoaaaaa–AARRRGGGGGGGHHHH...shove two fingers down my throat and pull out my heart...to prove that you love meeee...!" Clutching her iPod, Nellie emerged from the hatch ad lurched towards them, like creature put together from spare parts–a motion that Dan and Amy recognized as dancing. Pulling out her earbuds, she raised her face to the sky and let the rain pelt her for a few seconds. "Whoo-hoo, that is better than a facial!" she cried, running to join Dan and Amy under the overhang.
"Stick around," Dan said, "for a lava treatment.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Don't get me started on the little airplane name badges," Natalie grumbled.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

“Alistair je nakratko zatvorio oči i sjetio se nečega što mu je otac rekao, rečenice koju kao dijete nikad nije razumio: Tišina je snaga.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Viper's Nest

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Popular quotes

“[The critic] serves up his erudition in strong doses; he pours out all the knowledge he got up the day before in some library or other, and treats in heathenish fashion people at whose feet he ought to sit, and the most ignorant of whom could give points to much wiser men than he.

Authors bear this sort of thing with a magnanimity and a patience that are really incomprehensible. For, after all, who are those critics, who with their trenchant tone, their dicta, might be supposed sons of the gods? They are simply fellows who were at college with us, and who have turned their studies to less account, since they have not produced anything, and can do no more than soil and spoil the works of others, like true stymphalid vampires.”
― Théophile Gautier, quote from Mademoiselle de Maupin

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from Der kleine Prinz

“Cognition attempts to make sense of the world: emotion assigns value.”
― Donald A. Norman, quote from Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition (Revised)

“Looking back on it, could there possible have been a more confusing acronym for trying to keep kids from experimenting with drugs than DARE?
"Kids, we’re here today to DARE you not to do drugs! We DARE you to accept our DARE!"

"Office, does that mean you want us not to do drugs, or to do drugs?"
“We DARE you not to do drugs!”

"But I thought we weren’t supposed to do things We’re dared to do. If you dared me to jump out of a tree, I should do that, right?"

"It’s just an acronym, son."

"What is an acronym?”
― quote from Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories

“He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her full on the mouth. His skin was wet with rain. When she didn't pull away, he took her face between his hands and kissed her again, on her forehead, on her nose, on her mouth once more. "You will come, won't you? Promisse!" he whispered.”
― Cornelia Funke, quote from Sangre de tinta

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