Lee Thomas > Quotes

“Over the years I had convinced myself that brutality required motive, but this is a fool’s deceit. Cruelty is the motive; religion and politics and resources are simply the cloth man weaves to curtain his desires for violence.”
― Lee Thomas, The German

“Cruelty is not taught. It is as certain as a compass point. One can be instructed in the specifics of cruelty, like one can be taught to use a spoon, a knife, a fork, but even without these skills a man will still eat. The need is with us.”
― Lee Thomas, The German

“At night they emerge from the water, stalking over the grassy field, leaving bits of themselves on the ground. They gather at my bedside – Bum, Harold, David, the father I’d known before the war, and my neighbor Mr. Lang – and they gaze down on me, whispering revelations of who they were and who I am.
And the strongest voice belongs to the German, who looks upon me with concern and warmth, and he tells me, “If you can stand up, you’ll live.”
― Lee Thomas, The German

“Death was bleach and it burned away the stains, leaving nothing but white.”
― Lee Thomas, Butcher's Road

“They pushed closer. Chest to chest. Belly to belly. Two edges of a wound needing to heal.”
― Lee Thomas, Wilde Stories 2012: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction

“But the boy knew that monsters didn’t die as easily as hope.”
― Lee Thomas, Stained

“If Bobby had to guess, he’d say that killing folks was some kind of sickness where imagination and emotion got all mixed up. If”
― Lee Thomas, Stained

“Every human being was a victim of something, whether it was desire, addiction, ignorance, or faith.”
― Lee Thomas, Butcher's Road

“The priest’s deep brown eyes reminded Nicky of the bayou: light reflected on their surface, but dark things moved beneath.”
― Lee Thomas, Stained

“In politics and in war, monsters are defined by which side of a fight a man claims. He is still a man to those who share his beliefs, perhaps even a hero. To those that oppose his philosophy, he is a beast, a creature, one of a thousand unspeakable demons clashing over an ideal.”
― Lee Thomas, The German

“No real ghosts, Ted told himself. Memories were the only ghosts adults had: Memories and regrets.”
― Lee Thomas, Stained