George P. Pelecanos > Quotes

“If the storytellers told it true, all stories would end in death.”
― George Pelecanos

“Soon it began to drizzle for the second time that night. The drops grew heavier and became visible in the headlights of the cars. It was said by some of the police on the scene that God was crying for the girl in the garden. To others, it was only rain.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Night Gardener

“The thirst for knowledge is like a piece of ass you know you shouldn't chase; in the end, you chase it just the same.”
― George Pelecanos, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go

“I'm just a man, no more enlightened than any other.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Night Gardener

“We get schooled by the people around us, and it stays inside us deep.”
― George P. Pelecanos, Soul Circus

“A pistol ain't good for nothin' but killing other human beings, man.”
― George Pelecanos, Right as Rain

“You already been a punk. Least you can do is go out like a man." Then a dull popping sound and a quiet splash.”
― George P. Pelecanos, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go

“A look passed between Recevo and Karras. They could hear the rest of them crowded outside the door.
Karras cradled the Thompson gun, pressed the butt tight against his ribs.
"Well," he whispered. "Come on if you're gonna come."
They charged into the room.
Karras saw white fire as he heard the reports, heard Joey's gun explode, saw one man fall, heard Joey scream, watched Joey's fedora tumble by as if it had been blown by a strong wind. Karras squeezed the trigger, saw men diving through the gunsmoke, the doorframe disintegrating in spark and dust. He fell back to the floor from a blunt shock that felt like a hammer blow to his chest.
Karras winced, got himself up onto the balls of his feet. He leaned his face against the table, rested it there, caught his breath. He listened to the others move about the room.
Swim, you Greek bastard.
And he was over the table, landing on his feet as softly as if he had landed in water. And they were there, the Welshman and the others, moving toward him, emptying their guns at once, the sound deafening now and riding over their caterwauling screams and the bottomless scream coming from his own mouth.
Karras went forward, humming as his finger locked down on the trigger, the Tommy gun dancing crazily in his arms, the gunmen falling before him through the smoke and ejecting shells and the white gulls gliding against the perfect blue sky.
Red flowers bloomed on the chests of the men who had come to take Peter Karras to the place where he was always meant to be.”
― George Pelecanos

“If the storytellers told it true, all stories would end in death. But that will come in time...Not today.”
― George Pelecanos, The Way Home

“I got problems at home, I got problems at school, I got problems walkin down the street.”
― George Pelecanos, The Martini Shot: A Novella and Short Stories

“An hour past dawn, the Charger came down the hill, followed by a boxy Jeep with oversize tires and a Chevy half-ton truck.

'That's them,' said Ornazian

'The New Klansmen.'

'More like wannabe Nazis.'

'What's the difference?'

'Their playbook is Mein Kampf. They carved the number fourteen into the Weitzmans' dining-room table.'

'And that means what?'

'Fourteen words. The white-nationalist slogan. I am a coward and a loser and I blame my failure on other people.'

Ward counted on his fingers. 'That's fifteen words.'

'See? These guys could fuck up a wet dream. Let's go to their house.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Man Who Came Uptown

“And Constantine thought: So this is how it is, at the end.”
― George Pelecanos, Shoedog

“WASHINGTON, D.C., IS laid out in quadrants with the Capitol serving as the point at which they all meet. Numbered streets progress, well, numerically, and run north”
― George Pelecanos, Nick's Trip

“The sounds she made got him closer. It started in his thighs. He bit down on his lip. He heard that chiming sound and opened his eyes. He saw Donna’s hand coming back with a fistful of ice as she reached beneath him. “What the—” “No,” said Donna. “Now you go.” She jammed the ice cubes through his asshole and into his rectum. Karras thrashed, the veins defined on his neck. He came convulsively as Donna laughed from far away. “Damn,” said Karras minutes later. “What the hell was that?” “Something I picked up somewhere.” “I thought I was the teacher,” said Karras. “You were,” said Donna. “But not anymore.”
― George Pelecanos, The Sweet Forever

“Brock called himself Jamaican but had never set foot on the island. He was as American as folding money and war.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Night Gardener

“He rooted for two teams: the Washington Redskins and whoever was playing the Dallas Cowboys.”
― George Pelecanos, The Double

“Don’t let anything walk past you,” and Lucas knew well what that meant. There are opportunities and adventures that are there for only a short period of time, and only available to people of a certain age.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Cut

“Boy could fuck up a birthday party at the Chuck E. Cheese.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Man Who Came Uptown

“Karras dipped one finger in the cocaine, rubbed some on Donna’s clit and along the silk pink of her lips. Donna followed, touching cocaine to the head of his cock, running the remainder down the underside of his shaft and massaging his balls. Karras’s sex felt frozen and hot at once. He cupped a hand under her ass, lifted her and brought her forward, slipped himself inside her. Engulfed in her warmth, he let out a long, relieved breath. “Bury it,” she said.”
― George Pelecanos, The Sweet Forever

“Brock liked the old stories about outlaws like Red. Men who just didn’t give a good fuck about the law or if and when they’d go down. Having other men talk about you in bars and on street corners after you were dead and gone, that’s what made a life worth living. Otherwise, wasn’t anything about you that was special. ’Cause everybody, straight and criminal alike, ended up covered in dirt. For that reason alone it was important to leave a powerful name behind.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Night Gardener

“Edwin’s last breath was a long exhale.”
― George P. Pelecanos, The Cut

“LIKE MOST OF the trouble that’s happened in my life or that I’ve caused to happen, the trouble that happened that night started with a drink.”
― George Pelecanos, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go

“It’s the forgetting that allows trash like them to come back.”
― George Pelecanos, The Man Who Came Uptown

“waste of paper so heinous that as “editor” she should have been convicted of arboricide.”
― George Pelecanos, A Firing Offense

“Leah Bagdasarian had frequently heard that the great riddle of life is what happens to us when we die. In reality, the greatest mystery is the passage of time.”
― George Pelecanos, Owning Up

“From the television in the living room I heard the stopwatch intro to 60 Minutes and felt that familiar rush of anxiety, announcing that my weekend was ticking away.”
― George Pelecanos, A Firing Offense

“Your father’s a good man,” said Ali. “He’s like most people,” said Chris. “He’s trying to be good, and most times he is.” “Like you.” “But he wanted me to be better than him. Turns out I was human, just like him.”
― George Pelecanos, The Way Home

“Lyla McCubbin.”
― George Pelecanos, Nick's Trip

“I can remember the day I stepped off the boat onto Ellis Island. I can still smell it, like I stepped off that boat this morning. It’s like I blinked my eyes and now I’m old. It goes, Niko. It goes too goddamn fast.”
― George P. Pelecanos, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go

“There was a long while, after my marriage flamed out, I resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to have any kids. It’s not an easy thing to come to terms with, believe me. Having kids always seemed to me to be the most elemental thing to do. But there’s certain people maybe shouldn’t have kids, even if they want to. I’m probably one of them.”
― George Pelecanos, Nick's Trip