The King Of Lies Quotes
"I hated being a lawyer; that hatred ran so deep that I feared something must be wrong with me."
"The guilt may have been too much, or perhaps some part of him needed the punishment."
"Life without parole and him not yet twenty-three."
"He was old before his time, all but broken at twenty-three."
"That's where I was when they came to tell me that my father's body had finally been found."
"We're calling it murder, Work, and it’s going to be the biggest story to hit this county in a decade."
"She just hated lawyers, which made her okay in my book."
"I almost rose—it was a reflex—but when she turned to the table of young drunks and stared them down, I froze."
"I don’t want her to read about it in the papers. Do you?"
"She laughed, a lost sound that had no connection to her eyes."
"I’m not. But it’s got nothing to do with his death."
"I did not hear the door open, but suddenly Barbara was behind me."
"I’m eighty-three years old, old enough to know a thing or two, and the most important is this: Life is goddamn short. Figure out what you want. Be your own man and you’ll be better for it."
"The day was getting worse and the feel of dirty clothes against my skin only made it more so."
"He’d gotten the press, and they’d had no idea that most of the underlying work was mine."
"You could always hear the trains coming at her house."
"The trains came by about five times a day, so close that you felt the vibrations in your chest, deep and out of tune with your heart."
"It’s a mean street, I thought, and crossed to my sister’s house."
"Alex was the most purely physical person I’d ever met."
"I’d always heard about the last laugh, mostly from Ezra. I never knew that the last laugh could be something real, a thing you could remember and miss."
"This was a different guilt, born of darkness and fear in that stinking creek so many years ago."
"I closed my eyes, let myself sink beneath the blanket of this momentary joy, but inside I was hollow, and cold was a fist around my heart."
"All you have in life is family. If you are lucky, that includes the kind you married."
"My life dropped away as I stepped off the property and onto the sidewalk. I was a man, like any other."
"I felt things as I moved: the wall, the banister. What was real? What mattered?"
"She would make the perfect wife and only a fool would let her go."
"I knew that her thoughts, like mine, were on last night."
"The tail wind of her convictions had swept me into her wake."
"I rocked back in my chair, felt my defensiveness, but couldn’t do anything about it."
"I know he killed her. And damn you for protecting him."
"What price redemption, and where to find it?"
"Eventually, I arrived at the park, my house before me like a stranger’s. It glowed in the eerie light, and loomed taller than normal against the gunmetal sky."
"I stepped closer, noticing for the first time that I was taller than Douglas. 'Yeah. I know how it works. You get frustrated and I get screwed.'"
"I watched her all the way down the driveway, until she climbed into the sleek sedan. She embraced Glena and then they were gone, around the corner, toward the country club and the fortress of Glena’s home."
"It was a bad time, one of ugly questions and despicable truths."
"Hell is not eternal, Work. Nor is it devoid of all hope."
"I drove home and parked beneath high walls of peeling paint and windows as colorless as sanded lead."
"But if I had anything, it was Jean. She was the last of my family, and in this alone could I do something good for her."
"We were always family. Even when I hated you."
"I leaned against the wall in the corridor for what felt like a long time."
"You’re a member of this bar! He will be treated as such until such time as he is proven guilty."
"I won’t have this man put back into the general population. That’s my discretion. My prerogative."
"The game’s over, and I don’t have to play it anymore."
"Don’t take this the wrong way, Hank. But you’re not the person I expected to see."
"I’d like to see Clarence. It won’t take long."
"I want to know how a copy of my father’s will came to be in my house."
"I’d like to see him now. And I’m very willing to raise my voice."
"If Mills told you that, she did so for her own reasons."
"Of course, I made copies. This is a law office. I represent the estate."
"Don’t raise your voice to me, young man. I won’t tolerate it."
"You know that the state will not allow a killer to profit from his crime in that way."
"I find you and your petty machinations insufferable, Work. Get out of my office."
"Somebody planted that document in my house, Clarence. It had to come from somewhere."
"Earlier today, I held some pity for you, Work. But that’s gone. I will look forward to your trial date."
"You’re wrong about that, Hank," I finally said.
"She killed her father, Work. She cuffed him to the bed and set it on fire."
"She was a child! She didn’t know any different."
"But when she did this to me, when she set the fire and killed my Alex, well, I decided then and there that she weren’t no child of mine. Not then and not ever again."
"I did that for you!" she screamed. "For you! How dare you question me? I did it all for you, you ungrateful bastard."
"It’s just life, Barbara, and it gets messy. Not everything works out the way you want."
"You never knew me. Don’t pretend that you know me. Or what I’ve been through."
"I’m so sorry, Work." Her words broke, and the edges seemed to cut her. "For everything," she said, and the words, I knew, were a plea for forgiveness. "For hating you."
"Life is a torturous journey, Jackson, and I don’t know if I can handle any more pain. But I’ll never regret the day we met, and when you’re ready to talk, I’m ready to listen."
"Jean has not been right for awhile, Detective. She was angry, unstable. I couldn’t take the chance."
"I had eighteen months to think about things."
"You’re a good brother, too. I hope Jean knows what you were willing to do for her."
"I’m no lawyer," I said, but Mills didn’t seem to hear me.
"How many grown men do you think would have gone down that hole all alone? Not many, I can tell you that, and certainly not our father."
"He died for me that night, Work. Like I’ve always said. They can’t bury him any deeper."