Richard House > Quotes

“The worst thing you can do to someone, the very worst thing, is to keep them hoping.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“A tongue in a bag. Teeth. A room drenched in blood.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“You think those cats care? You think other animals watch each other go at it and it does something for them?”
“Like cat-porn.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“He searched for a word – was ‘cuckold’ specifically masculine? Were women saddled with verbs instead of nouns, with the past-imperfect, the ‘was’ and ‘used to’ of being cheated, deceived, disappointed.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“And then ... perhaps someone will write a book about making a film about a story that is taken from this book which is taken from a real-life story that was copied from a story in a book. You know?”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Stories are how we connect. Evolution isn’t seriously about thumbs but about how we use language – that’s what raises us above dumb animals, right? Language?”
― Richard House, The Kills

“The secret to disappearing is to stay where you are.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Everything in English sounded funny.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“...WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY
...that counts?
...that carries meaning?
...that made the day worthwhile?
...what will you do tomorrow?”
― Richard House, The Kills

“The older they became the less time they spent together, and the less time they spent together the less dissatisfaction they felt toward each other.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Because what matters, what counts, isn’t how well you are loved, but how able you are to give love.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Wickedness is not as interesting as you might hope.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“So why are you here?” Watts asked Santo.
“Because, Paul, is it Paul? I’m here to put the f in freedom.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Telling stories to make himself into something that he isn’t. We all do it. We all tell stories to make ourselves look better.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“He calls these projects gophers, as in, go-for-the-money (don’t-deliver-the-project).”
― Richard House, The Kills

“She read the last chapter of her book because she didn’t want to start something that would end badly.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“What you have to understand, he says, is the mentality of the Iraqi versus the mentality of the average Westerner.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“What is awful is that there were always reasons to do one thing and not another, but these reasons disappear. You don’t remember them. They just go, and you’re left with what you did or didn’t do, and this idea that you didn’t do enough. The truth isn’t always so easy. You can’t think yourself back into that place that made everything how it was.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Correggio, Caravaggio, Titian, Tintoretto. In them she saw distance and cruelty. Bodies pierced, flayed, crucified. A parade of morbid flesh.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“So what about the cats?”
“What about them?”
“The cats he killed. He killed all those cats. Dumped them in the tank.”
“So he didn’t like cats.”
“With a slingshot.”
“They were strays. Nobody missed them.”
“But you don’t kill cats. That’s not normal.”
Rino shrugged. “Cats are cats.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“A human has seven litres of blood. This they had taught him in the army. Seven litres, which, with an arterial cut will vent a fountain two or three metres, and take three to four minutes to bleed out.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Cats aren’t as friendly as they appear: fur, teeth, instinct, selfishness and cunning. Essentially they’re just big rats.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“There are Sutlers everywhere.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“You are the stories you tell, whatever their basis in fact or experience. It’s who you are.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“Gerhard Grüner has made a report stating that he was bound to a chair and thrown down a flight of steps.”
“None of this is true. We have no steps.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“They believed the devil would rise from here,” she said. “I’m serious. They thought he would come up through the cracks in the ground, that there would be an earthquake and he would rise. Dust. Fire. The end of the world. They calculated the day and built churches to protect themselves.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“At some point the body offers only disappointment.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“It is doubtful that you could find a full-blooded Cossack who would voluntarily take part in any such activity, as the girl, so to speak. The receiver. I cannot think of one example myself, not one case which involves a full-blooded Cossack. Historically, this is a weakness of the Greeks, the Italians, and of course your own people, who are particularly fond of this vice.”
― Richard House, The Kills

“More often than not it’s the mascara and lipstick combination that tips the balance. These military wives could do with some lessons. Seriously. Why would you leave the house looking like a monkey had a party on your face?”
― Richard House, The Kills

“They weren’t a couple. They were two people making do.”
― Richard House, The Kills