M Is For Malice Quotes
"Not all of this was conscious. Much of the rumination was simmering at a level I could scarcely discern."
"I started my career investigating arson and wrongful death claims for California Fidelity Insurance."
"Ah, January. The holidays had left me feeling restless."
"For the record, I'm Kinsey Millhone, female, single, thirty-five years old, sole proprietor of Kinsey Millhone Investigations."
"Some days I see myself (nobly, I'll admit) battling against evil in the struggle for law and order."
"I haven't refused a case yet, but I was strongly considering it."
"The morning of January 8 inevitably arrived and I pounded along the bike path as if pursued by wild dogs."
"In this world, lies can only take you so far before the truth catches up."
"He was a fuckup, pure and simple. He never lifted a finger for anyone except himself. Typical narcissist."
"I wasn't hired until yesterday. The probate attorney is getting the process underway. By law, you're required to be notified since you're one of the beneficiaries."
"I don't have much, but I don't need much either."
"Place wasn't mine. The church provides my housing, but I make enough to take care of the basics. Food and utilities, that sort of thing."
"I grew up without much guidance, without values of any kind. I'm not blaming anybody. That's just how it was."
"Thing is, I was raised without a moral compass. I couldn't get a sense of what the rules were so I just kept pushing."
"For me, it is. Back then, I was always teetering on the brink."
"I didn't have a clue. I was rudderless. I was like a boat going full throttle but without any real direction, roaring around in big circles."
"My domestic skills leave something to be desired."
"None of us have children, so once we're gone, it won't make any difference who these people are."
"I could see him flinch. His expression shifted abruptly to one of injury and irritation."
"I'd been celibate for so long, what was another year without sex?"
"If you could have it all, but only briefly, would the rush of love be worth the price in pain?"
"Some days the discipline is an end in itself, a way of asserting the will in the face of life's little setbacks."
"What's life without a toothbrush and clean underpants?"
"As with tobacco, the rituals of alcohol seemed to be a stalling technique until those assembled could get themselves psychologically situated."
"My legs were too skinny and my fake ears wouldn't stand up."
"Jack leaned forward. 'What the fuck is this?'"
"Nobody else lifts a finger around here except me."
"The tray itself was the size of a manhole cover, very plain, probably sterling silver, and distinctly tarnished along the edges."
"I'll admit I stretched it out, making it sound more problematic than it had actually been."
"In me, the instinct for survival and the need for love had been at war for years."
"The danger of feeling too much is no worse than the danger of being numb."
"As long as you have sufficient toilet paper, how far wrong can life go?"
"Trouble creates a vacuum into which the rest of us get sucked."
"In the gloom of heavy shadow, the drop in air temperature was distinct and unwelcome, as if the months were rolling backward into winter again."
"Your memories sound happy. That surprises me somehow."
"It was easier to be permissive, you know what I mean?"
"Your fantasies are always stranger than reality."
"You can't hide from God and that's the point."
"I'm trying to show 'em I've changed and then I find myself feeling like I always did."
"Let's talk about something else. This is making me so tense I could fart."
"If anybody goes down for the count, it's going to be you."
"If I cut and run, we're never going to find a way to work this through."
"I can tell you're not listening, but please, please, don't agree to anything without talking to an attorney first."
"I find it infinitely satisfying when the process finally works as it should."
"Honestly, I adore Guy, but I can't stand the rest of 'em-"
"What's life about? Are people not really dead until we've been irrefutably informed?"
"Every ordinary act seemed fraught with novelty."
"I could hardly believe it when Tasha told me."
"I needed some relief from all the terminal illness."
"It's always easier to pin suspicion on someone you dislike."
"I believe in my country, the flag, paying taxes and parking tickets, returning library books on time, and crossing the street with the light."
"Right then, however, I knew I was going to have to do a little verbal tap dance because how I 'went about' finding Guy Malek wasn't exactly legitimate."
"His brothers were upset at having to give him a share of their father's estate."
"He was a good person and I'm really sorry he's gone."
"He seemed boyish, a young soul. I must have a weakness for guys who never quite manage to grow up."
"Trust me. In the continuing saga of Jonah and Camilla, the mere fact of this infant has no bearing on their relationship."
"You have self-esteem issues? Are you a nail biter? Bed wetter? Jealous or insecure?"
"On superficial examination, the type font looked the same."
"I'm antsy. And feel my fingers. They're as cold as ice."
"Jack's a fanatic about loyalty. He always was."
"I'm no particular fan of Jack's, but working for Lonnie Kingman I'd be kept in the loop."
"Don't forget he's got to hide the shoes at the bottom of the thrift box, wipe the blood off the bat, and return it to the pool house before he hightails it back to the country club."
"It's possible Santa Claus came down the chimney and did the deed himself."
"I'm going to find out who killed you and I'm going to find out why. I swear I will do this. I swear it."
"In the midst of all the heaviness I felt, Dietz was leavening."
"I don't often think of sex as an antidote to pain, but that's what this was and I fully confess—I used intimacy with the one man to offset the loss of the other."
"The interior had the look and the feel of a sailboat: compact, simple, with royal blue canvas chairs, walls of polished teak and oak."
"We sank together, in a rolling motion. The sheets were chill at first, as blue as the sea, warming at contact with our bare limbs."
"Something about the play of shadows infused the air with a watery element, bathing us both in its transparent glow."
"I must have been buzzing like a power line because even Henry's easy flow of conversation seemed to falter and fade."
"He gave me a look like I'd suggested cooking up a mess of garden slugs."
"I have no idea what they were, but these seem fabulous."
"I'm arguing about Guy, not the Maddisons, okay?"
"Everything in the office had an air of having been borrowed or picked up on the cheap."
"In the absence of definitive answers, it's good to look organized."
"Here's what you want: justice. Here's what you'll settle for: something equivalent, the quid pro quo."
"Independence has nothing to do with hanging on."
"Ghosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them."
"Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there."
"Don't worry about it. You've had a murder in the house. Everybody's nerves are on edge."
"Their dismissal of her would have fueled her bitterness and hardened her determination to take revenge."
"We were all goofy with goodwill, with the notion of world peace."