Dylan Argyle > Dylan's Quotes

“She had that look again—taut jaw, pursed lips and angry eyes—the look her face assumed when her borderline personality had crossed the border.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“To describe Mayumi’s demeanor towards Kiwako as frosty would be like describing an ice age as minor climate change.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“All of these things, however, were but like methadone to a heroin addict. They only masked the withdrawal pains without satisfying the addiction. So even as they tried truly to break up many times, they always found their way back to each other.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“That must be Bogrov,” Alexei said as he put on a black ski mask. Laughing, he tossed one to Torn. “Don’t worry, it’s clean. Let me do the talking. This is how we take depositions in the Wild Wild East!”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“The attendant pointed out that the bones were in very good shape and so many of them had survived cremation because the deceased was relatively young and healthy. Torn almost rolled his eyes. We could do without the biology lesson.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“We’re at the crematorium having lunch,”—which struck Torn as a darkly funny thing to say—“but I’m glad you called.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“After purifying himself he walked through a small red gate to the shrine, dropped a goen, or five yen coin, the Japanese word for which also means good luck, into the wooden collection box in front of the shrine.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“He was genuinely concerned. He wanted her happy and healthy. The idea of divorcing her when she was ill made him feel even more guilty and she knew it. And he knew she knew.”
― L. M. Weeks

“They usually didn’t know I was half-Japanese. But you know how it is. No matter where you go, you don’t quite fit in. But it is fun to be able to slip in and out of two such completely different cultures seamlessly like a shapeshifter.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“She tossed him a small mirror so that he could see the results, and what he saw horrified him.  The boiling concoction left a deep trail of burnt skin that stretched from the crown of his head all the way to his chin – almost like an artificial sluice that burned his flesh to form a large rivulet that ran down the center of his face.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“He wasn’t sure if his parents would be proud that their child had served his country or not.  There had always been something unnatural about parents burying their children.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“After the front legs emerged, what looked like a quartered and bloodied cut of steak followed.  This piece of steak had rich and dark fur, wet with the mare’s internal membranes that covered the whole body, but it did not have the look of a horse at all.  And yet from the steak’s center came this pulsating heartbeat, as though its pace-setting qualities tried in vain to pull away or escape from its thoroughbred side.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“At first, she bucked like a wild stag beneath me, and she tried to scream, but the pillow did a good job of muffling her voice.  Before long, the bucking stopped, and my wife’s corpse, blue without oxygen, appeared below me like a hideous phantom.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“She put all of her weight against the sill of the balcony, her lovesick heart ready and willing to join the man she loved.  She closed her eyes and pushed herself forward.  From three stories high, she plummeted to the earth.  Before hitting the ground, she swore she saw him, racing down from the heavens and lifting her up towards God’s domain where lovers never ceased to rule.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“Once inside my skull, my doctor added some salt, just to taste.  He also poured some fruit into my skull – an apple, a pear, a few seedless grapes, and a ripe banana.  He then used an electric blender set on its highest speed to create what he had termed ‘a yogurt parfait.’  After he finished blending the ingredients, he beckoned the other doctors and a few of the nurses to sample his new concoction.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“The television set then came after her, chomping its teeth.  Upon reaching the living room, the television succeeded at eating her body bit-by-bit: first the legs, then the body, and finally her flailing arms.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“She likes me.  I can tell.  Problem is, she won’t admit that to the boyfriends she brings over.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“It seemed as though he would never pull free, until he awoke one morning feeling kind of awkward, as though his hands had been lopped off by some Arabian sword during a routine druggie blackout, and in their place, pale and membranous hands that had been fit to his wrists by aliens that took him up while he slept and then brought him back down – all of it in an effort to help him move up to where he belonged in society.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
― Elbert Hubbard

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

“Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.”
― William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

“She is the kind and friendly sort, but I’m an old man at this point, so it would be useless and somewhat illegal if I asked her out.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“The orderly brandished a hunting knife from a sheath at his waist and sliced open the prisoner’s throat with it.  Warm blood cascaded out of the prisoner’s throat, some of it spraying the captain’s uniform.  The orderly waited for the prisoner to bleed to death before cutting the head clean off.  Within a few minutes, the muscle that the prisoner built on his body was carved out and thrown on the grill.  After the meat cooled, the orderly put the human steaks in front of the captain for dinner.  As the captain ate each buttery piece, he couldn’t help but compliment the orderly for a job well-done.”
― Harvey Havel, The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction

“You get what you tolerate.”
― Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time

“As a leader, you get what you tolerate. People do not repeat behavior unless it is rewarded.”
― Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time

“Our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time. While no single conversation is guaranteed to transform a company, a relationship, or a life, any single conversation can. Speak and listen as if this is the most important conversation you will ever have with this person. It could be. Participate as if it matters. It does.”
― Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time

“The first thing the attendees saw when they walked in was a poster with the question “What are our mokitas?”—a Papua New Guinea word for that which everyone knows and no one will speak of: the elephant in the room.”
― Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time

“Ask yourself . . . What are my goals when I converse with people? What kinds of things do I usually discuss? Are there other topics that would be more important given what’s actually going on? How often do I find myself—just to be polite—saying things I don’t mean? How many meetings have I sat in where I knew the real issues were not being discussed? And what about the conversations in my marriage? What issues are we avoiding? If I were guaranteed honest responses to any three questions, whom would I question and what would I ask? What has been the economical, emotional, and intellectual cost to the company of not identifying and tackling the real issues? What has been the cost to my marriage? What has been the cost to me? When was the last time I said what I really thought and felt? What are the leaders in my organization pretending not to know? What are members of my family pretending not to know? What am I pretending not to know? How certain am I that my team members are deeply committed to the same vision? How certain am I that my life partner is deeply committed to the vision I hold for our future? If nothing changes regarding the outcomes of the conversations within my organization, what are the implications for my own success and career? for my department? for key customers? for the organization’s future? What about my marriage? If nothing changes, what are the implications for us as a couple? for me? What is the conversation I’ve been unable to have with senior executives, with my colleagues, with my direct reports, with my customers, with my life partner, and most important, with myself, with my own aspirations, that, if I were able to have, might make the difference, might change everything? Are”
― Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time