A.J. Stewart > Quotes

“I sipped my drink. It tasted like battery acid with lime squeezed in it. I was as big a fan of lime as the next guy, but why anyone would waste it in tonic water was beyond me.”
― A.J. Stewart, Stiff Arm Steal

“As Muriel put the martinis on a tray, Mick reappeared and put a plate of smoked fish dip and crackers on the bar in front of us. “Thank you, Mick,” I said. I was a fiend for Mick’s homemade fish dip. It was the perfect bar food in my book, and there was no finer food than bar food. “Wahoo,” he said in reply. I assumed he was telling me the type of fish he had used to make the dip, but he might just have been excited.”
― A.J. Stewart, Past the Post

“Are all ex-jocks like that?” “You’d be surprised,” I said. “There are a lot of guys out there can’t get past the glory days. Some just manage it better than others.” She shook her head. “I weep for the species.” “And I thank you for it. You”
― A.J. Stewart, Stiff Arm Steal

“I woke late on Friday. I had decided to stay on at the Funky Biscuit and see Buzz Weeks play. And play he did. He renewed my desire to learn how to play the saxophone. It never ceased to amaze how the professionals could make the near impossible look like shelling peas. As”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside

“I wasn’t a fan of secrets. They rarely made things better. But they also came in various shades, from No, your butt does not look big in that to I slept with your sister. I”
― A.J. Stewart, Past the Post

“are the sum of our stories, and we live on in memories only as long as those stories are told. That was why people gathered after a funeral or memorial. To share grief, yes, but more than that, to remember the person that was, passing on the stories from person to person”
― A.J. Stewart, Making The Drop

“Legio Patria Nostra,” he”
― A.J. Stewart, The Final Tour

“We stepped outside. It was dark, but the warmth hung on the air. Summer was doing it’s warm-up exercises, getting ready to come on in full force.”
― A.J. Stewart, Half Court Press

“Life is what you make it.”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside

“We can’t control the seas, and we can’t steer other people’s ships. All we can do is be a lighthouse and hope they see the light.”
― A.J. Stewart, Dog Gone

“Like people wanted to be here. To create their own traditions rather than be defined by them.” “And so it was for Jake Turner,” said Ron. “His father was an old school control freak, and mother was distant. Lots of families like that. But it’s like boiling a frog. You get used to it. It might not be loving and caring and sitcom saccharin, but it’s not bad either. So Jake wasn’t running away. He was running to.”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside

“I’d rather have a cabin on bedrock than a mansion on quicksand.”
― A.J. Stewart, Making The Drop

“need”
― A.J. Stewart, Stiff Arm Steal

“It never ceased to amaze how the professionals could make the near impossible look like shelling peas.”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside

“life is the law of unintended consequences.”
― A.J. Stewart, Dead Fast

“actions of any organization aren’t driven by what the leadership knows, but by the culture the leadership creates.”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside

“stories. Sometimes the stories were interconnected, and sometimes the next one had nothing to do with the one that came before. Doesn’t mean they’re not all good stories.”
― A.J. Stewart, The Ninth Inning

“The sound that came out was as if it emanated from somewhere else, someone else. Like the perfect fairway iron, where thought is banished and swing is natural and harmonious and the connection so pure that you don’t feel it, you just lift your eyes to watch the ball fly long and straight and true and onto the green, as if hit by Tiger himself. I blew a note that was low and tender, a sound full of melancholy and history, as if the sax were telling its life story, exposing its soul, explaining its raison d’être. It was a singular note, nothing spectacular. Not Coltrane or Charlie Parker. Yet something very special. Audible tenderness.”
― A.J. Stewart, Miami Jones: Toes in the Sand Collection

“it was the center of everything. Not so much now. How about you?” “No, I never played professional baseball.” “I didn’t mean that.” “Imprecision with language is the forbearer of disagreement.” “Who said that?” “I did.” He didn’t look proud of it. It seemed no more than a statement of fact. “Danielle said you were an English teacher.”
― A.J. Stewart, The Ninth Inning

“Well, since you asked,” smiled Ron, “I did have a little chat with Elise.” “Elise. And?” “And I’m not surprised the kid is where he is.” “How so?” “It’s a little bit Stepford. She’s worried, about her son, I’m sure. But more so about what her neighbors will think about having a drug user son. She’s trying to convince herself it was an accident.” “An accident? Under the bleachers?” “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story,” said Ron. “You should run for office.”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside

“control the world around me. I could, however, control how and when I reacted.”
― A.J. Stewart, Past the Post

“There was a lot of data bouncing in my brain, but, as Lenny used to say, information with context is knowledge; information without context is for lining bird cages.”
― A.J. Stewart, Outside Lanes

“hoped”
― A.J. Stewart, Stiff Arm Steal

“MJ, life is the law of unintended consequences. When I left Eric, I didn’t expect to wind up on a case that would lead me to you, and I sure didn’t expect to lose my heart to a scruffy beach bum. I didn’t expect to get shot, and I didn’t expect that to lead to us living together. It’s all unintended. It’s not about avoiding the unexpected—it’s about how you react to the events that life throws at you.”
― A.J. Stewart, Dead Fast

“I wanted to get away. Not because life was so bad. But it was stifling. New England’s as old as this country gets. Its traditions are firm and true and it felt like there was no room to breathe, to explore. To be yourself. In New Hampshire they like to say Live Free or Die. In Connecticut it was more like Conform or Perish. Florida”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside

“Exactly. If you live in the past, you miss out on the now. And the now is when great things happen.”
― A.J. Stewart, Stiff Arm Steal

“stood about six-two,”
― A.J. Stewart, In a Pickle

“I sat potahto.”
― A.J. Stewart, Red Sunset

“The basis of all good intellectual discourse is a directly stated question.”
― A.J. Stewart, The Ninth Inning

“No. You get old, the high ain’t as high, but the low is lower.”
― A.J. Stewart, Offside