Richard Gerlach

“That boy. That stupid little foolish boy took their money, and he ran. Back to Zephyr, back to the clean hills, back where he could think. And then that book came out, with the boy’s name on it, and he saw that cover and knew he had taken his child and he had dressed that beautiful child up like a prostitute and now only people who craved ugliness wanted her. They wanted to wallow in her, and use her up and throw her away because she was only one of a hundred thousand and she was crippled. And that boy … that boy had done it to her. That evil, greedy boy.” His”
― Robert McCammon, Boy's Life

“I didn’t hear the song like Reverend Blessett did. To me it was the sound of summer, a slice of heaven on earth; to him it was all stinking brimstone and the devil’s leer. I had to wonder how a man of God like he was could hear Satan’s voice in every word. Wasn’t God in control of everything, like the Bible said? If God was, then why was Reverend Blessett so scared of the devil?”
― Robert McCammon, Boy's Life

“Mom’s new husband was eleven years older than Mom. He had been Mom’s boss at the Buick dealership where she’d worked until they were married, and you could see that he was still Mom’s boss—the way he spoke to her, not exactly giving orders, never forgetting to say Please but in a tone of voice that meant there was no negotiating. Of”
― Joyce Carol Oates, Dis Mem Ber: And Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense

“We call darkness our friend, but when the elders tell us stories of the Garden, they talk of the holy, unending light that was there. How did shadows become our only dwelling?”
― Tad Williams, The Heart of What Was Lost