Becky

“He had three great loves, his wife, his dogs, and his home. He wrote about them over and over again. And though literary critics say he was a patently unimportant writer and they probably are right, he accomplished something that very few important writers are able to do: in some ineffable way he transmuted his great loves into the hearts of other people so that they loved them almost as intensely as he did. So that now, long after he has gone, along with his wife, and the dogs, the strange love still remains.”
― Irving Litvag, The Master of Sunnybank: A Biography of Albert Payson Terhune

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and folded his hands and stopped where he was, listening, waiting while a very sick woman tried to gather her faculties.
“First off, tell the dowager she’s a right damn bastard.”
It was no time for a translator to argue. Mitigation, however, was a reasonable tactic. “Aiji-ma, Sabin-aiji has heard our suspicions regarding Tamun and received assurances from me and Gin-aiji that we have not arranged a coup of our own. She addresses you with an untranslatable term sometimes meaning extreme disrepute, sometimes indicating respect for an opponent.”
Ilisidi’s mouth drew down in wicked satisfaction. “Return the compliment, paidhi.”
“Captain, she says you’re a right damn bastard, too.”
― C.J. Cherryh, Defender

“What would you say if I tortured you?" asked the bandit leader conversationally.
Halla blinked at him. "Err, 'Ow,' probably. 'Stop, Stop, Stop,' something like that?" *What a bizarre question. What does he expect me to say?*”
― T. Kingfisher, Swordheart

“They had fought together on many missions. They were linked by ties more binding than blood. There existed between them something that cannot be expressed in words, nor would they have thought of trying to. Perhaps Rosetti came nearest it when he slapped Davis on the back and said, "You old sonofabitch!”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Complete Tarzan Collection