Alfonso Duffey > Alfonso's Quotes

“As Kevin climbed the three flights of stairs to his apartment, his brain formulated a vague plan of action. He could not have explained it to anyone or even to himself in coherent sentences. But the outline was there in Kevin’s subconscious. It would not only change his life, but many others, as well.
A Call to Action had been born.”
― Traci Medford-Rosow, Unblinded: One Man’s Courageous Journey Through Darkness to Sight

“She answered by standing and kissing him first and held his cheeks and closed her eyes and felt sure as bones and deep as blood that she had found her place.”
― Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

“Even in the dark, I see hints of a smile creep onto her face.
“Yeah. You are a smooth talker."
I give her a wounded frown.“Sweetheart, would I ever lie to you?”
“Don’t try. I’d see right through it.” I give her a low laugh. “Fair enough.”
― Marie Lu, Prodigy

“Calo bit the inside of his cheek, retuned his harp, and then began again:

"Said the reeve to the maid who was fresh to the farm
'Let me show you the beasts of the yard!’
Here’s a cow that gives milk, and a pig that’s for ham
Here’s a cur and a goat and a lamb;
Here’s a horse tall and proud, and a well-trained old hawk,
But the thing you should see is this excellent cock!"


“Where could you possibly have learned that?” shouted Chains. Calo broke up in a fit of giggles, but Galdo picked up the song with a deadpan expression on his face:

"Oh, some cocks rise early and some cocks stand tall,
But the cock now in question works hardest of all!
And they say hard’s a virtue, in a cock’s line of work
So what say you, lovely, will you give it a—”
― Scott Lynch, The Republic of Thieves

“She's going to be there.
Showing up would be a mistake.
It would be awkward.
She's going to be there.
What if someone asks her to dance?
What if she meets her future husband and I'm there to witness it?
She doesn't want to see me.
I might get drunk and do something to piss her off.
She might get drunk and do something to piss me off.
I shouldn't go.
I had to go. She was going to be there.”
― Jamie McGuire, Walking Disaster

“Are you all right?” he asked Olivia. His heart was still racing with terror that she’d been hurt. “I heard a woman scream.”

“Ah, that would have been me,” Sebastian said.

Harry looked down on his cousin, face frozen in disbelief. “You made that noise?”

“It hurt,” Sebastian bit off.

Harry fought not to laugh. “You scream like a leettle girl.”
― Julia Quinn, What Happens in London

“They are ours,” he said, “although not properly the sailors: they are only along because we would not leave them to drown, and ought to be more grateful for it than they are. Laurence,” he said, turning, “this is Palta, and that man is called Taruca: Iskierka snatched him, and I cannot find she asked him in the least.”
― Naomi Novik, Crucible of Gold

“...about six months ago, after my fortieth, I started to feel so...the only word I can think of is 'bland.' Or 'flat' might be a better word.”
― Liane Moriarty, The Husband's Secret

“Hi," he says. I manage to grunt in response, and his smile broadens. "Rude enough for you?"

I nod and give him a reluctant grin. Jeez, any ruder and I'd have to spank the pair of us.”
― E.L. James, Fifty Shades Darker

“I never doubted my standing in the next life, but I often felt shame in this life, constantly disappointing God in my failure to love as He asked me to love. As such, I was caught in a kind of stupor of unworthiness.”
― Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love

“Neagley hated physical contact. No one knew why. But it was a recognized issue.”
― Lee Child, Small Wars

“I would never hurt you. Shifters mate for life. For LIFE. I recognized you the moment I saw you. I knew we belonged. I knew I was born to protect you. To make you happy. To love you, Sonia, like no one in this world has ever been loved.”
― Christine Feehan, Leopard's Blood

“Terrible things happened when you were least expecting them...But it seemed that wonderful things could happen too. You could be forced to take a trip, not knowing who you would meet. Not knowing that it would change your life.”
― Morgan Matson, Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

“Excuse me, Mr. Ludefance. Just so you are aware, we are a tightknit group here. We all had knowledge of what happened prior to midnight. You can speak to all of us if you want, but you’ll be hearing the same story. It’s what happened between midnight and eight AM that’s very much in question. Not one officer on that shift saw or heard anything unusual. But if you wish to speak to any of the officers from that shift, we can arrange for you to do so. Now, I suppose you can start with Officer Harrington here. When you finish with her, I’ll call Rhodes. He doesn’t live that far away. The other officers are here on campus.”
― Behcet Kaya, Uncanny Alliance

“Remove the comma, replace the comma, remove the comma, replace the comma...”
― R.D. Ronald

“I walked past Malison, up Lower Main to Main and across the road. I didn’t need to look to know he was behind me. I entered Royal Wood, went a short way along a path and waited. It was cool and dim beneath the trees. When Malison entered the Wood, I continued eastward. 
I wanted to place his body in hallowed ground. He was born a Mearan. The least I could do was send him to Loric. The distance between us closed until he was on my heels. He chose to come, I told myself, as if that lessened the crime I planned. He chose what I have to offer.
We were almost to the cemetery before he asked where we were going. I answered with another question. “Do you like living in the High Lord’s kitchens?”
He, of course, replied, “No.”
“Well, we’re going to a better place.”
When we reached the edge of the Wood, I pushed aside a branch to see the Temple of Loric and Calec’s cottage. No smoke was coming from the chimney, and I assumed the old man was yet abed. His pony was grazing in the field of graves. The sun hid behind a bank of clouds.
Malison moved beside me. “It’s a graveyard.”
“Are you afraid of ghosts?” I asked.
“My father’s a ghost,” he whispered.
I asked if he wanted to learn how to throw a knife. He said, “Yes,” as I knew he would.  He untucked his shirt, withdrew the knife he had stolen and gave it to me. It was a thick-bladed, single-edged knife, better suited for dicing celery than slitting a young throat. But it would serve my purpose. That I also knew. I’d spent all night projecting how the morning would unfold and, except for indulging in the tea, it had happened as I had imagined. 
Damut kissed her son farewell. Malison followed me of his own free will. Without fear, he placed the instrument of his death into my hand. We were at the appointed place, at the appointed time. The stolen knife was warm from the heat of his body. I had only to use it. Yet I hesitated, and again prayed for Sythene to show me a different path.
“Aren’t you going to show me?” Malison prompted, as if to echo my prayer.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“Nine roses around the lion…God in heaven that’s the Tumbaar coat-of-arms.”
― Gabriel F.W. Koch, Steel Blood

“Not-knowing is always more thrilling than knowing. Not-knowing is where hope and art and possibility and invention come from. It is not-knowing, that old, old thing, that allows everything to be renewed.”
― Anthony Doerr, Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

“Women want the fairytale. Not all women, of course, but most women grow up dreaming about the kind of man who would risk everything for them, even knowing they might get hurt.”
― Nicholas Sparks, True Believer

“I don’t know if there’s a healthier way for two people to stay in love than to stop using each other to resolve their unfulfilled longings and, instead, start holding each other closely as they experience them.”
― Donald Miller, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Acquiring a Taste for True Intimacy

“The wish of death had been palpably hanging over this otherwise idyllic paradise for a good many years.

All business and politics is personal in the Philippines.

If it wasn't for the cheap beer and lovely girls one of us would spend an hour in this dump.

They [Jehovah's Witnesses] get some kind of frequent flyer points for each person who signs on.

I'm not lazy. I'm just motivationally challenged.

I'm not fat. I just have lots of stored energy.

You don't get it do you? What people think of you matters more than the reality. Marilyn.

Despite standing firm at the final hurdle Marilyn was always ready to run the race.

After answering the question the woman bent down behind the stand out of sight of all, and crossed herself.

It is amazing what you can learn in prison. Merely through casual conversation Rick had acquired the fundamentals of embezzlement, fraud and armed hold up.

He wondered at the price of honesty in a grey world whose half tones changed faster than the weather.

The banality of truth somehow always surprises the news media before they tart it up.

You've ridden jeepneys in peak hour. Where else can you feel up a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl without even trying? [Ralph Winton on the Philippines finer points]

Life has no bottom. No matter how bad things are or how far one has sunk things can always get worse.

You could call the Oval Office an information rain shadow.

In the Philippines, a whole layer of criminals exists who consider that it is their right to rob you unhindered. If you thwart their wicked desires, to their way of thinking you have stolen from them and are evil.

There's honest and dishonest corruption in this country.

Don't enjoy it too much for it's what we love that usually kills us.

The good guys don't always win wars but the winners always make sure that they go down in history as the good guys.

The Philippines is like a woman. You love her and hate her at the same time.

I never believed in all my born days that ideas of truth and justice were only pretty words to brighten a much darker and more ubiquitous reality.
The girl was experiencing the first flushes of love while Rick was at least feeling the methadone equivalent.

Although selfishness and greed are more ephemeral than the real values of life their effects on the world often outlive their origins.

Miriam's a meteor job. Somewhere out there in space there must be a meteor with her name on it.

Tsismis or rumours grow in this land like tropical weeds.

Surprises are so common here that nothing is surprising.

A crooked leader who can lead is better than a crooked one who can't.

Although I always followed the politics of Hitler I emulate the drinking habits of Churchill.

It [Australia] is the country that does the least with the most.

Rereading the brief lines that told the story in the manner of Fox News reporting the death of a leftist Rick's dark imagination took hold.

Didn't your mother ever tell you never to trust a man who doesn't drink?

She must have been around twenty years old, was tall for a Filipina and possessed long black hair framing her smooth olive face. This specter of loveliness walked with the assurance of the knowingly beautiful. Her crisp and starched white uniform dazzled in the late-afternoon light and highlighted the natural tan of her skin. Everything about her was in perfect order. In short, she was dressed up like a pox doctor’s clerk. Suddenly, she stopped, turned her head to one side and spat comprehensively into the street. The tiny putrescent puddle contrasted strongly with the studied aplomb of its all-too-recent owner, suggesting all manner of disease and decay.”
― John Richard Spencer

“So the Midwest nourishes us [...] and presents us with the spectacle of a land and a people completed and certain. And so we run to our bedrooms and read in a fever, and love the big hardwood trees outside the windows, and the terrible Midwest summers, and the terrible Midwest winters [...]. And so we leave it sorrowfully, having grown strong and restless by opposing with all our will and mind and muscle its simple, loving, single will for us: that we stay, that we stay and find a place among its familiar possibilities. Mother knew we would go; she encouraged us.”
― Annie Dillard, An American Childhood

“She decided to keep her mouth shut until the map arrived, to prevent herself from betraying the stratospheric heights of her irritability.”
― Kristin Cashore , Bitterblue