ToLo > ToLo's Quotes

“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.”
― Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you've felt that way.”
― Charles Bukowski

“You have to die a few times before you can really
live.”
― Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“...the sun rose each morning to stare into my face with the blank but touching gaze of a lovely retarded child.”
― James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.”
― Stephen King, Storm of the Century

“If a train is coming at you, closing your eyes won't save you ... but if you look right at it, you at least have a chance to jump.”
― Andrew Vachss, The Weight

“Yeah, good to see you too.
Her hand stays on the gun.
“Did I say it was good to see you, Joe?
“No, but I always try to read between the lines. Figured you going for your gun was how you express affection these days.”
― Charlie Huston, Every Last Drop

“It’s a puzzler, and I don’t want to sound full of myself, but I may just be the Vyrus messiah."
He shakes his head.
“I don’t know for sure. Have to meditate on that shit some more. Anyhoo.”
― Charlie Huston, Every Last Drop

“Also: do not fuck with someone until you know exactly who the fuck you're fucking with.
And then don't do it.”
― Don Winslow, Savages

“--Tell them to drop their guns and fuck off out of my way.
--Allow him to--
I clamp my arm tight.
--That's not what I said.
She gets it right this time.
--Drop your guns and fuck off out of his way.
They drop their guns and fuck off out of my way.”
― Charlie Huston, No Dominion

“Fuck me", Bat gasped, "It’s like an angel shat ice cream coffee rainbows in my mouth.”
― Warren Ellis, Gun Machine

“Your life is in some bizarre state when priests are throwing abuse at you on the street.”
― Ken Bruen, The Magdalen Martyrs

“There'll be times when the only refuge is books. Then you'll read as if you meant it, as if your life depended on it.”
― Ken Bruen, The Killing of the Tinkers

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“No animal has more liberty than the cat, but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist.”
― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

“How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“If you aren't rich you should always look useful.”
― Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night

“Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself.”
― Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night

“Ralph also took some classes in philosophy and literature and felt himself on the brink of some kind of huge discovery about himself. But it never came.”
― Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

“It's been my experience that only children never learn when to keep their fucking traps shut. An older brother would have beat that out of you.”
― Adrian McKinty, The Cold Cold Ground

“But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep yourself to death.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain

“He was one of those characters who felt that a weak handshake could somehow damage his authority, which meant that every handshake had to bloody hurt.”
― Adrian McKinty, The Cold Cold Ground

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Son, never trust a man who doesn’t drink because he’s probably a self-righteous sort, a man who thinks he knows right from wrong all the time. Some of them are good men, but in the name of goodness, they cause most of the suffering in the world. They’re the judges, the meddlers. And, son, never trust a man who drinks but refuses to get drunk. They’re usually afraid of something deep down inside, either that they’re a coward or a fool or mean and violent. You can’t trust a man who’s afraid of himself. But sometimes, son, you can trust a man who occasionally kneels before a toilet. The chances are that he is learning something about humility and his natural human foolishness, about how to survive himself. It’s damned hard for a man to take himself too seriously when he’s heaving his guts into a dirty toilet bowl.”
― James Crumley

“In the darkness things always go away from you. Memory holds you down while regret and sorrow kick hell out of you. The only help you'll get is a few hard drinks and morning.”
― James Sallis, The Long-Legged Fly

“I get through some print.”
― Ken Bruen, The Guards

“I thanked him and he asked me if my cape got caught on stuff when I was running and jumping, and I said, "Sometimes.”
― Joe R. Lansdale