Pat Donlin

“Well, this bastard isn’t retarded.” She looked up at me, her eyes hard. “Of course he isn’t,” Wesley agreed. “Psychopaths are anything but stupid. What we want to do is make the guy think we think he’s stupid. Hit him where it hurts—his goddam pride, which is hooked up with his grandiose notions of his off-the-charts IQ.”
― Patricia Daniels Cornwell, Postmortem

“Nobody phoned, nobody came and there weren’t any letters.” Parsons seemed proud of his empty life, as if it was evidence of respectability.”
― Ruth Rendell, From Doon With Death

“They are disagreeing, vehemently and enjoyably, about the politics of Malawi, where Gordon has recently been. Gordon advises the ministers of such places on how to manage their economies. ‘Rubbish, Claudia,’ he says. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve never been to the damn place.’ ‘Since when,’ says Claudia, ‘did I depend on personal experience for an informed opinion?’ And they both laugh.”
― Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

“Sometimes, in order to keep from quitting, you must bully or cajole yourself. You are fatigued from this reading, though it doesn’t show, so you get no credit for your stamina. If only, when reading difficult material, your face grew red and sweaty. If only your breathing grew ragged and labored. Like during great exertion at the gym. Dead Lift and Chest Press. Hammer Curl and Lat Raise. And now, the hardest exercise of all: Lick Finger to Turn Page. You can do it, B.A.: two more sets of eight reps.”
― Beth Ann Fennelly, The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs