Ian Kirkpatrick > Quotes

“Virginians don’t belong in Maryland for the same reason Marylanders don’t belong in Virginia. When we meet, it should be in DC where everyone is the same kind of nasty: feds.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Bleed More, Bodymore

“The stains of so many years of misery make the chair look like it’s a bleeding, rotting corpse all its own. The spot that stands out the most is where his head was when he ate lead the first time. I take another hit from the cigarette, wiping at my eyes. A laugh bubbles out. I thought stains were supposed to fade with age, just like the bad stuff that happens to you, but they don’t. Fifteen years isn’t enough to make blood blend into brown carpets with every other mess?

Bullshit.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Plead More, Bodymore

“Cynicism is just a way of evading the truth a little longer.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Plead More, Bodymore

“I walked out just like her, you bitch. If I walked out, it would be my condemnation of him. I would be the reason he gave up and put a gun to his head and fed the blood-lusting mud of Bodymore. I don’t know what it is about this place that makes people desperate.

Desperate for a future.
Desperate for money.
Desperate for someone else.

It’s always everything we don’t have that’s going to solve that desperation.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Bleed More, Bodymore

“Scarcity makes desire, yes, but scant makes desperation, and satisfaction makes you lazy.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Boom, Boom, Boom

“The world is run by cynics and abusers, Kelly and it’s a damn shame. I don’t know if there’s anything any of us can do. Fight it? How long you think people’ve been fighting these urges? This… human nature. The best thing any of us can do is take care of ourselves. God damned the future like he damned our childhoods.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“The only people who should come are those who want to meet their monsters. No one is spared. Whatever you think might be worth it, you will find the sacrifice too great. This godforsaken house will promise you the world, then take everything you have.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“Gavin recognized the look of his father, a half-empty bottle of resentment in his hand.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“He built a reputation by having the most peculiar temperament in the league. Referees became hesitant to flag breaks in the rules or messy plays, and other players became wary of calling Johnny out on inappropriate form, or backing up the ref. He soared to the top of the league, entered the international championship, and was supposed to be awarded second. They met for the handshake and his opponent met God.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“And this is how it happens. Someone does something shit to you, makes you suffer, maybe you die, and you get tunnel vision for the revenge you want to feel in your hands—The punishment you believe you deserve to dole out. You come back to find the fucker that ruined your life and you’ll do anything you can to get them back. You can’t see anything else and everyone becomes collateral damage to the pain you have to cause or the justice you have to find. It hurts too much to think of what someone else took from you, that you can’t see anything outside of the future you can’t grasp anymore. Then, when you hurt someone else because your focus is on whoever fucked you up, they come back feeling the same pain, same anger, their future taken from them too and it just keeps going, again and again, over and over, until everyone’s been promised mutual destruction by proximity and nothing else matters.

No one cares about any story that’s not their own. The pain caused is invisible to everyone else until it becomes personal and everyone’s reaching for the thing that blew their lives to pieces. Regret and rage are toxic seeds, planted to consume the heart.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Plead More, Bodymore

“America isn’t the picture of barbecues, guns, freedom, and hot girls eating hamburgers you probably saw on TV. That’s the old America and one I’m not even sure ever existed. The glowies parade that picture around every time they want to put people at ease and push them back into place. DC is especially made of glowies. You can’t talk to anyone because maybe they’re gonna send you to the dungeon or maybe they know someone who can.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Boom, Boom, Boom

“This world didn’t cater to the hard-working or sacrificial, but the greedy dressed in self-righteousness, so he determined he would rather do what was necessary while alive and answer for it later. If protecting his family was considered a damnable offense, then so be it. He would go to Hell for them.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, American Princess

“Ellie wasn’t half as adored as her mother. Though she was sweet, there was something about the way she carried herself or spoke to others that always seemed fake. When they first met, Mathias’s first instinct was repulsion”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“You didn’t have to die like this, you know. The world is gonna remember you by the last way they saw you. Dry skin, I think I see a mustache, overweight, and that horrible color you’re always wearing... Look, I can work a little magic, but honey, the miracles are on someone else. I’m a Jew, not a saint.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“Is that really all there is? Without a body, a soul rots, and during rot, everything that’s left of the person is scrubbed away, right? Until they’re miserable and broken and breaking everything else, fashioning a mirror out of the world around them.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Plead More, Bodymore

“Ignorance of war will not stop the bullet from straying into your head.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Boom, Boom, Boom

“Alex tossed the towel onto the counter. “Part on the left or right?” he said. “No middle parts though. Only future serial killer victims part their hair in the middle.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“Sweetie – look, I get it. I’ve read those books too. You have Stockholm Syndrome. He’s an asshole and you refuse to leave him. We can fix that mindset of yours though, first by giving you a haircut. That’s how all girls find their identities again after a really bad relationship. Haven’t you seen the movies? You’re not doomed, just a little frumpy.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“You can talk about leaving, but then you hear his voice say, “you’re just like your mother,” and next to him, that’s the last person you want to be.”
― ian kirkpatrick, Bleed More, Bodymore

“All Gavin’s father wanted was to see something recognizable and human in his child, a glimmer of his late wife, or some sign that the boy wasn’t a mistake, but it never came”
― Ian Kirkpatrick

“Beautiful women were an asset to most men, even men who were taken couldn’t bring themselves to ignore a woman in distress. It was not because they always wanted something, but because they couldn’t help responding. Virtue was something always worth protecting because there was so little of it left.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“It’s amazing how easily the youth forget the
Holodomor. Soviets not only starved us to death, but enjoyed every second of the suffering they inflicted. You’re an idealist, Jan, and idealism feels nice to live by, but all it does for you is drop you in a grave thinking the guy who put you there isn’t so bad.”
― ian kirkpatrick, Boom, Boom, Boom

“He saw into me, but still smiled and felt warm without the pity or anger or desire to pull away that’s common when people find out how really busted up you are. For as much as people say they care, you really find out how much of it’s a lie when you show someone the wounds you carry. They think they understand because they were disappointed once, but I’ve learned that those who brag about charity are usually the least charitable.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Grieve More, Bodymore

“It’s not the heroes of this city that create the legends here; it’s the ones who terrorize us.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Bleed More, Bodymore

“Another criminal, another neighbor, another friend, another bag of trash. It’s incredible how many lives can be thrown into the woods and forgotten about.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Grieve More, Bodymore

“He could almost believe there were angels in the wild.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, American Princess

“Everything’s an insult when your soul is bankrupt.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Plead More, Bodymore

“Doc never pictured herself as a private physician with one patient. Generally, she hated people and getting to know anyone too well only affirmed her prejudices. She often questioned why she became a doctor in the first place, but she enjoyed the feeling of power that came with the tools she knew how to wield and the complete control of emotions her words had. “You’re dying,” could shift a mood or change the course of a life. “You need this surgery or you will die,” was all she needed to convince her patients to line her pockets.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Dead End Drive

“The flags on their mics say they’re from different companies, but the plastic preparedness of their appearances makes them look like they came from the same machine.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Bleed More, Bodymore

“Broken bones could heal, but a shattered ego could do little more than scatter, making room for resentment that would take over the soul.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, American Princess