David Ellis > Quotes

“the best lies are the ones closest to the truth.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“It’s a lot easier to fool someone than to convince someone they’ve been fooled.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“Why does the word “queue” have not only four consecutive silent letters, which is bad enough, but also the same ones repeated? What, they weren’t silent enough the first time through?”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“But when you do choose to speak, say what you mean, mean what you say, and be ready to support your points. If you can’t support your point of view, then it wasn’t much of a point of view to begin with.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“the word “fridge” has a “d” but “refrigerator” does not; how “tomb” is pronounced toom and “womb” is pronounced woom, but “bomb” is not pronounced boom; how “rough” and “dough” and “cough” and “through” should rhyme but don’t. I don’t know why oddness and contradiction calm”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“I even used the excuse when I was alone, as if I were somehow fooling myself with the ruse. You know your life is going off the rails when you tell yourself the lie you've created for everyone else, and you believe it.”
― David Ellis, The Last Alibi

“Irish Alzheimer’s—he only remembers the slights, the grudges.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“Don’t speak unless you have something to say,” she used to say to me during our talks when she tucked me in. “But when you do choose to speak, say what you mean, mean what you say, and be ready to support your points. If you can’t support your point of view, then it wasn’t much of a point of view to begin with.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“Easy now. Good, clean thoughts. Calming exercises, go. “Tear” and “tier” are pronounced the same but “tear” and “tear” are not. “Fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing. I dig into my email. Not the In-Box or the Sent but the Drafts folder. “Arkansas” and “Kansas” are pronounced differently. We drive on a parkway but park in a driveway. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, is a humanitarian a cannibal?”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“As a wise woman once told me: The best lies are the ones closest to the truth.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“I’m surprised more people don’t get murdered on Halloween.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“You not only do it, but you want nothing more than to do it, you embrace self-demolition over all else. Does that mean, perhaps, that was the point of it all along, the self-destruction, but you can’t be honest enough with yourself to admit it, so you wrap it up in something superficially and temporarily pleasurable like the high from a pill?”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“disappointed when I pulled the plug.”
― David Ellis, The Last Alibi

“All art requires is courage and the commitment to eat lots of biscuits. D Ellis / 2016”
― David Ellis

“Don’t speak unless you have something to say,” she used to say to me during our talks when she tucked me in. “But when you do choose to speak, say what you mean, mean what you say,”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“I couldn’t believe, couldn’t comprehend your reaction. People acted this way? People thought this way?”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“freaking”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“You mark my words: Lauren Lemoyne was looking for her next sugar daddy.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“I have become the man I despise.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“Day has turned into night has turned into day, the movement of the hands on the clock nothing but a signal that we have less and less time to get ready. Some people, facing deadlines like this, just want it to be over. I'm the type who always wants more time.”
― David Ellis, The Last Alibi

“The brilliance of the law is that it’s not concerned with one person but with a system applicable to all. It protects the guilty so it can protect the innocent.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“because”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“I will never latch myself to another person. I learned how to live alone, and I guess I learned it too well.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“The brilliance of the law is that it's not concerned with one person but with a system applicable to all. It protects the guilty so it can protect the innocent.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“You want to kill someone, Halloween’s not a bad night.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“Simon has often joked that he has Irish Alzheimer’s—he only remembers the slights, the grudges.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“Don’t speak unless you have something to say… But when you do choose to speak, say what you mean, mean what you say, and be ready to support your points. If you can’t support your point of view, then it wasn’t much of a point of view to begin with.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“I find the silver Mercedes coupe and pull out my key. After a glance around, I run the key along the side of the car, a hideous scrape across the driver’s-side panel. Sorry about that, Dean. Now for that haircut.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“He’ll apologize. He’ll shower her with affection. He’ll make her laugh and feel loved. She’ll blame herself. And she’ll consider her lack of other options. Rinse and repeat.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer

“I like your darkness. I like being your light.”
― David Ellis, Look Closer