The Winter Of Frankie Machine Quotes
"Quality of life is about the little things—doing them well, doing them right."
"We thought those summers would never end. Never thought we’d ever feel the cold in our bones."
"Life’s like a fat orange, Frank thinks. When you’re young, you squeeze it hard and fast, trying to get all the juice in a hurry. When you’re older, you squeeze it slowly, savoring every drop."
"Making love is like making a good sauce... You have to take your time, use just the right amount of the right spices, savor each one, then slowly turn the heat up until it bubbles."
"You’ve heard of the phrase ‘quality of life’? This is a quality-of-life issue."
"Sorries are for yesterday. All God gives us is today, sweetie."
"You can do about anything in this country as long as you kick up to the feds. Uncle wants his taste, and as long as he gets it, you can pretty much do what you want."
"Rental properties, Frank thinks, is a polite way of saying hemorrhoids."
"I'm not negotiating with you, kid. I gave you the conditions under which I'll work. If it's worth it to you, fine. If not, it's also fine."
"The only difference is that rental properties make money and hemorrhoids don’t, unless you’re a proctologist."
"You never go to a person's house empty-handed."
"She’s gotten a little matronly, maybe, around the hips, but she’s kept herself in good shape."
"It’s not working, Patty says, coming in behind him."
"If the stuff hits the fan, you hit the deck and stay there until it gets real quiet and you hear me telling you to get up. You don’t hear me telling you to get up, it’s because you’re dead, and then it doesn’t make any difference anyway."
"Even in the rain, Frank loves the view of San Diego from the harbor."
"Old-school, Frank thinks, using a wire. But they probably didn’t want to risk the noise of a gun unless they had to."
"I’ll just play stupid, Frank thinks. Which shouldn’t be hard, given my track record tonight."
"Pain is good, he figures, seeing as how by all rights he shouldn’t be feeling anything."
"Every prudent professional hit man has a spider hole, and Frank is nothing if not prudent."
"A tired body and a fatigue-foggy head will get you killed. You need to think and act sharp."
"By this time, they’ve been killed so many times in their minds that the real thing is a relief."
"At the end of the day, it’s what killed him."
"Memory is a funny thing, because he can still smell the oranges from that night."
"Everyone has his price, Frankie. Never forget that."
"Like the Surfaris song that was so popular then: Surfer Joe joined Uncle Sam’s Marines today."
"The wet sand looks like dark, shiny marble and the cold rain pelts him in the face."
"You ain’t the man until you beat the man who was the man."
"There are five things that make guys give you an opening: Carelessness. Fatigue. Habits. Money. Sex."
"This life of ours, you never know how much time you have with your kids, so why bust balls?"
"The truth of the matter is, Frank thinks now as he watches the rain splatter against the window of his safe house, the truth is that I killed more men for the feds than I ever did for the mob."
"What, you want Bobby fucking Kennedy in the White House? Guy’s got a hard-on for us you could cut glass with."
"But in Tet, they came out en masse and got gunned down en masse. Frank was a one-man wrecking machine in the city of Hue."
"It’s funny, Frank thinks now. I got my training from the federal government."
"People are predictable. Once you can predict what a guy’s going to do and when he’s going to do it, then you can find your opening."
"Making money for other people is what keeps you breathing. Never forget that."
"If you’re going to put a snitch in our yard and not tell us about it, what the hell do you want us to do?"
"This isn’t going to be any short mix-up that can be quickly fixed. They’ll be coming, in force and for the long haul, and they won’t quit until they’ve put me in the dirt."
"Raining in the damn desert, Frank thinks. It just figures. It goes with all the other weird stuff that’s going down."
"Frank’s always found it moving, a miracle, when the sere desert becomes a sea of color and blooms with life."
"You need the money, he told himself, and he did, but the truth was that home was turning into a painful place and he was looking for excuses to get away."
"Truth was, Frank was glad to get away for a few days."
"You don’t want to know!" he yelled. "Just take the money, keep your mouth shut, don’t ask questions about things that are none of your business!"
"For the first time in his life, Frank felt this sense of freedom about sex, because it wasn’t a struggle or negotiation or an obligation. It was just pure pleasure."
"How many people, Frank asked himself, have to die so the beautiful people can stay beautiful?"
"It’s hard and it’s tiring and it’s expensive as hell. Money hemorrhages when you’re traveling, anyway, and when you’re on the move and trying not to leave any footprints, it bleeds all the faster."
"I’ll have to stay with you," he said. "That would be okay."
"Did you think you were playing with children?"
"You’re about twenty-eight minutes from Mexico. Drive across the border to Mexicali."
"This is a quid pro quo," the guy says. "Tell your people they cannot expect the quid unless they deliver the quo."
"The bullet smacks the wood a half inch above Jimmy the Kid’s head."
"His whole body quivers and then he fights for control of himself and wins."
"Frankie was sending a peace message: I could have killed you if I wanted, but I didn’t."
"Then one night they went out to dinner. They had a little wine, had a little time together, and then they went home, fell into bed, and boom."
"What am I?" Billy said to Mike Pella one night. "An asshole?"
"No offense, Billy," Mike said, "but you should know people are talking, the way you’re letting Eddie laugh at you. It can’t be good for business."
""Pick up the girls at eight," Saunders said as he got out of the car. He gave Frank an address in Del Mar."
"Alison nuzzled Summer’s neck and Summer said, "If you do that, I can’t stop you."
"Alison said, "I know," and reached around and unclasped the top of the bathing suit."
"The yacht came back toward the dock that morning like a plague ship, bodies strewn about the deck in various states of undress."
"Frank learned later—with the rest of the suckers—that the savings and loan industry was the biggest bust-out scheme in history."
"You’re counting our drinks?" Mike said. "You cheap-ass, nickel-and-dime piece of shit—"
""Jesus, maybe I shot the wrong fucking guy," Mike said."
"Let's prove everyone wrong," he says, "and get in out of the rain."
"If I were to say I killed him," Frank says, "which I'm not, I'd say it was self-defense."
"No," Dave says. "But I can give you a life back."
"All I can figure is that this has something to do with something Mike Pella and I might have done back in the day," Frank says.
"Deck chairs on the Titanic, Frank thought. A bunch of hyenas squabbling over a dried-up skeleton."
"He liked hitting on cocktail waitresses even more than he liked wailing on me," Donna said.
"I decided a long time ago," she said, "that a woman in this world needs to take care of herself. I prefer it that way. I like it."
"It's my eyes," Frank said. "I have kind eyes—people tell me things."
"The truth was that Frank liked food too much to eat any of this stuff."
"Nothing personal," Frank said to him, "but your coffee is garbage and your pastry is crap."
"You have a daughter, Frank, on her way to med school. What's Jill going to do with you six feet under?"
"These guys are trying to kill you!" Dave yells. "And you're going to stand up for them?"
"He hadn’t seen him like this since the Carly Mack case."
"You can justify it all you want, but when you look back at your life with your eyes open, you know what you were."
"Shhhhh, it's all right." He looks up at Garth. "I made copies. They’re in safe-deposit boxes all over the world."
"They're not going to kill me, baby," he whispers. "I'm Frankie Machine."