J Torres

“Duane Minor’s the problem. He remains the last damnable logjam in Varley’s plan. He’s heard mutterings here and there over the past year, year and a half, from a half dozen sources: Someone’s looking for you. Two people—young guy and a dark-haired girl. Guy’s got that thousand-yard stare on him. The thralls get that look sometimes, but this one’s different.”
― Keith Rosson, Coffin Moon

“I had come with one question for Cole. “What is it about the striped bass?” I asked. “The thing about the striped bass is that they’re beautiful. They’re also the wildest, biggest fish that’s inshore. And they’re very loyal. You can walk out to a salt marsh anywhere along the coast and catch one. They show up every year in the same spot, unlike the bluefish, which is evasive and mercurial. You develop an affection for a wild creature that comes to you, that puts itself in your environment. Stripers allow us to connect with the natural world. And they taste pretty damn good.”
― David DiBenedetto, On the Run: An Angler's Journey Down the Striper Coast

“Now, in my fifties, I wake up knowing exactly where I am. My windows are open, which I remember opening last night. I am naked, and I remember taking off and throwing my dirty clothes in a hamper I bought the other day at the equivalent of a Hungarian Target here in Budapest. I wake up with eyes wide and I don’t need coffee but I enjoy the ritual. I am right where I’m supposed to be, fully aware, and shame no longer follows me like a reticent dog being belly-dragged on a leash. With this clarity comes an interest in smiles and honest laughter and the patience to suck the nutrients from all those walks of life that now tickle my senses. Morning has me in its grip and I’ll walk today, I’ll stroll to the river or up the hill or to a coffee shop to witness and engage. The world is a hard and unforgiving dark alleyway. Sometimes the riot of a bar fight becomes a communal heaven we never saw coming. For now, I’ll marvel, sufficiently stunned, at the fortune of it all. Amen.”
― Josh Brolin, From Under the Truck: A Decidedly Un-Celebrity Memoir from the Enigmatic Actor

“She looked even less like royalty than usual. Her wet hair had come loose and stuck to her pale cheek”
― Joe Abercrombie, The Devils