Matthew Iden > Quotes

“a ragged jean jacket to guard against the bite of early December.”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“my life had been turned. But the rain can do that to you. The clean smell of water on pavement, the haze that tints everything in view; it makes everything seem dramatic. But I stood on the sidewalk anyway, the drops hitting me in the face, until long after her car’s taillights winked and were gone.”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“Like, Well, there you go. Or, It is what it is. And, Well, what can you do? I suppose these one-offs are less idiotic than they seem on the surface. They're all a way of saying the same thing, that shit happens and you have to deal with it. You can try to ignore it, wait for it to go away. Maybe that works, but sometimes the knot won't untie itself and your attention is required. A thing you never expected, could not have predicted, suddenly becomes the foremost event in your life and no amount of wishing it away will work. In some cases, the event is small and the ramifications manageable. In my case, it affected everything. Forever.”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“How many mice does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” Eyebrows raised, I said, “I don’t know, Chuck. How many?” “Two. If they’re small enough.”
― Matthew Iden, The Wicked Flee

“Salutogenesis.” When his statement was returned with blank stares, the psychologist smiled and repeated, “Salutogenesis. The theory that some of us have it in our DNA to bring out a dormant . . . superman, for lack of a better term, when we are pushed to our physical or emotional limits. The theory was forwarded after studies of certain Holocaust survivors showed that a surprising number of them had not only made it through the worst mental and spiritual trial imaginable, they’d achieved a level of emotional and psychological growth that, frankly, shouldn’t have occurred.” Deb frowned. “We’re part of a study on ‘the tough get tougher’?” “No. It’s not a platitude. It’s the belief that salutogenesis is a core human trait that actually manifests and grows only under extreme physical and emotional duress. It’s not just survival in the midst of a crisis, it’s the ability to transform under it, to bloom and become something better than you were before the crisis took place.”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over

“Historically, the people who weather crises the best are those who adjust their expectations to fit the reality of the situation.”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over

“We survived, but mere existence is not life.”
― Matthew Iden, Seven Into the Bleak

“ticking sound as a beam or a joist somewhere settled a fraction of an inch. The refrigerator hummed, then went quiet. I hadn’t noticed the sounds as much before. When people enter your life, they expand your world. But when they leave, the void is that much greater. The question is, can you fill it up again? Or does it just stay there? A hole in your heart, empty and waiting.”
― Matthew Iden, Blueblood

“We’re all connected. And we hope the love we share with others will get us through bad times. But it doesn’t always erase the pain, the loneliness. It isn’t always enough.”
― Matthew Iden, Blueblood

“Sorry. That was a lousy thing to say. You just think about how things affect you, y’know?” “It’s”
― Matthew Iden, Blueblood

“Which left Amanda, who had made an emergency landing in my life with her own problems not long ago, but now it seemed like she’d always been there. And at some of the lowest points of dealing with my cancer she’d given me something to think about besides myself, which was exactly what I’d needed. If she left, it wasn’t just a matter of loss for me, it was a matter of survival.”
― Matthew Iden, Blueblood

“as well have stuck my fingers in my ears. Warm air blew softly down the hall with a low roar that, coupled with a buzz from the lights and a hum from the elevator shaft, swallowed all other sounds, no matter how hard I concentrated. But that could work both ways. I padded down the hall, noiseless in sneakers. The hall branched to the left several times, forming the bottom end of a T. At each branch I listened intently, then bobbed my head into the hallway for a quick check. I reached the end of the hall. Nothing. Nobody. No Charles Manson or Ted Bundy or Vlad the Impaler. Definitely no Michael Wheeler. I considered for a second. I didn’t know which office I was looking for and could spend half the night checking doors and poking my head into rooms while Amanda might or might not be stuck in an elevator. And if Wheeler was holed up somewhere on this floor, it would be child’s play to sneak up and pop me while I was going up and down hallways, rattling doorknobs. It wasn’t a one-man job and I could afford to wait for backup. My first priority was to make sure Amanda was safe. Quick but cautious, I headed back to the elevators. Halfway there, my cell buzzed in my pocket. I answered. “Singer.” “Detective Singer, this is the dispatcher with the George Washington University police. We spoke earlier. Are you in the Krueger building?” “Yeah,” I said, keeping my head up and watching the doors to at least a dozen classrooms as I continued the walk back to the elevator. “I’m on the ninth floor now.” “Is Ms. Lane in danger?” “I don’t know.” I explained how I’d lost the call. “We’ll need to get someone to override”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“As the chaos around them had gone from the manageable to the unimaginable, Carla had fled to”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over

“baleful”
― Matthew Iden, Chasing the Pain

“I scanned the sidewalks, the streets, and the building entrances, my eyes skimming over people and objects, letting my mind and my intuition do the work of looking for the break in the pattern, the thing that jumps out. I’d learned a while ago that trying too hard screws with your attention. You focus on a bright, shiny object and realize too late that it’s a handbag when what you’re actually looking for is a gun.”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“impending”
― Matthew Iden, The Spike

“when it rains in the greater DC area, everyone takes their brain out and locks it in their glove compartment. I”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“It is more comforting to think your superior is stupid than evil,” Vox said. “It is a popular Russian attitude.” “It”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over

“The troubles in my life stayed with me and were only as big as I chose to make them. The rest I could ignore.”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“So What.’ That’s the name. It’s a classic. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans. Catchy, isn’t it?” “It”
― Matthew Iden, Blueblood

“There were points in life, he’d come to realize, that offered moments of absolute choice. The proverbial fork in the road. Either you did this thing or you didn’t. Life would be this way . . . or that way.”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“I need the books to look like a lawyer. If you don’t have the props, you must not have the chops.”
― Matthew Iden, Once Was Lost

“At some point, potential had to be realized, or you simply ended where you began: a blank, empty, meaningless frame of white, waiting for effort to give it meaning. She”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over

“The granite slabs and bronze statues seemed a grand, hollow tribute, the kind of architectural statement that stood in for meaningful action a lot in DC.”
― Matthew Iden, Blueblood

“It is more comforting to think your superior is stupid than evil,”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over

“It was as though someone had ripped away the proverbial curtain, showing me that what I’d been thinking and what was real were at complete odds with each other. I’d been treating cancer like it was the flu, an inconvenience that I’d have to put up with temporarily. Except cancer wasn’t just a sore throat and a fever, and chemo wasn’t just a shot in the arm. Cancer wasn’t a bump in the road—it was the road, and I’d better make plans to treat it that way.”
― Matthew Iden, A Reason to Live

“Smith & Wesson Model 642,” I”
― Matthew Iden, Blueblood

“Destination”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over

“Was it a skill he’d worked on for years, like a craftsman learning his trade? Or was he an idiot savant, destroying any chance of a normal conversation with unconscious artistry?”
― Matthew Iden, Once Was Lost

“At some point, potential had to be realized, or you simply ended where you began: a blank, empty, meaningless frame of white, waiting for effort to give it meaning.”
― Matthew Iden, The Winter Over