Orest Stelmach > Quotes

“There’s an old Ukrainian proverb: He who licks knives will soon cut his tongue.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The day I stop scaring you is the day you should leave me.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy from Reactor 4

“Remember what the hare said to the hen when he opened the barn door.” She raised her eyebrows. “What’s that?” “With foxes, we must play the fox.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy from Reactor 4

“May I ask you a question?” “Of course.” “If I offered you ten million dollars or a clear conscience, which would you take?” He considered the question. “Both,” Victor said. “I am a thief.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy from Reactor 4

“Love had been conditional in our house. Growing up it was based on scholastic achievement. Ever since I got a job, it was based on money.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“would be the winner. “Why would I wait?” “Because you said you would.” “I said I’d wait before I wrote anything. That didn’t mean”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy Who Stole from the Dead

“garrote out of his pocket. The three of them”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy from Reactor 4

“Due to the Swedish Barmaid falling off her bike pissed and the boss selling sexual favors in warmer climates, Café Bottoms Up will be closed for the rest of the week.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Treachery of Russian Nesting Dolls

“Don’t be scared of getting scared, he said. It’s normal to be frightened in unusual circumstances. Make fear your friend. Let the fluttering in the belly and the pounding of the heart remind you to be alert and not do anything stupid. Then focus your mind on something else, Marko said. Picture yourself doing something you enjoy, and imagine you’re really doing it.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The greatest opportunities presented themselves when all hope was gone.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

“The woman who keeps her emotions at bay can find the way.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“She’d been up all night baking paska—the special Easter bread—and babkas.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“A fractured family is the hardest break to mend. Sometimes . . . sometimes we need a little help from a stranger.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“She could have been a former lingerie model or a ravenous zombie from a postapocalyptic world.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy from Reactor 4

“When she got her job on Wall Street, she stopped practicing her religion, which is to say she changed her affiliation to the greenback.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy from Reactor 4

“Once she turned fifty, her metabolism slowed and she shed all inhibitions about portion control.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy Who Stole from the Dead

“Beads of sweat covered her arms as though her skin was a pancake in the making.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“In her world, guilt inspired remorse. Contrition was measured in dollars.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“I felt as though I were following the headsman to the town square to receive my just punishment.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“It’s easy to forgive other people because you have no control over their actions. The hardest thing is to forgive yourself because you have control over your actions.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy Who Stole from the Dead

“The one thing she knew not to do was drink from the stream. One of the boys had done that last summer camp and ended up in the hospital with a Cryptosporidium parasite and diarrhea for a week.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“You’re a tough chick. But even a tough chick can’t make it on her own. Everyone needs a little help from somebody every once in a while. Everyone.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“Only idiots brought boomerangs to a gunfight.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

“that as she aged, a woman had to decide whether to preserve her ass or her face. She couldn’t keep both.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The conclusion was as clear as the whipped nougat was delicious:”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“You can’t trust anyone that drives a Maserati. It pretends to be a Ferrari but it’s not.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“It was a smile as spontaneous and genuine as the pile of shit I’d stepped in was deep.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“No one ever plotted to kill the peasant.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy Who Stole from the Dead

“community. I was sure Donnie had experienced the same single-minded”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The most dangerous people in the world weren’t the extremists, Nadia thought; they were the highly educated and super-intelligent extremists.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Boy from Reactor 4