Holly Quotes
"Forty is when you have to stop kidding yourself that you’re still a young anything."
"You have to start taking care of yourself when you’re forty."
"Oh, there’s the unkempt west side near Red Bank Avenue, known as the Thickets, where those seeking or selling drugs can sometimes be found after dark."
"This night in October is warm for the time of year, but a fine drizzle has kept all but a single dedicated runner inside."
"Most of these homes are Victorians, with impeccable paintjobs, bow windows, and lots of gingerbread trim."
"The mist makes slowly moving halos, silvery and beautiful."
"Her train of thought derails long enough to observe a young man go slap-slapping by on the other side of the road."
"The park where Ridge Road terminates isn’t as big as the one that sits splat in the middle of Manhattan, but close."
"Everything, in fact, except a public pool; every now and then the city council discusses the idea, but it keeps getting tabled."
"He’s got his second wind now, lungs taking in more air, endorphins lit up."
"There’s a hole where her mother used to be, it’s as simple as that."
"Bonnie Rae goes to the back cooler and gets a bottle of soda, looks like a Coke or Pepsi."
"She doubts if she could keep track of the words."
"She considers it while they look at the girl in the cage. Neither of them feel pity for Ellen, or even sympathy. She is a problem to be solved."
"Every solved problem adds to efficiency, as every scientist knows."
"Their marriage has always been a partnership."
"Roddy bends and kisses her white hair. 'Hang in there, baby.'"
"She’s unable to suppress a small cry of disgust when a maggot squirms onto her wrist."
"Roddy is holding the requested salad. 'No dressing. We wouldn’t want to violate your dietary principles.'"
"Em has noticed how many fags are uppity, and thinks it’s probably compensation."
"Ellen looks at Em with haunted, deep-socketed eyes… then smiles."
"Emily can barely restrain herself from saying it. The girl is infuriating."
"Em takes a bottle of water from her apron pocket and is delighted by the way the girl’s eyes fix on it."
"In a way, Roddy thinks the problem is a good thing."
"Probably overdoing the caution—you can’t disinfect everything, it would be crazy to try—but better safe than sorry."
"He had already laid a dozen low, but more were coming at him."
"It’s too early to feel real relief from the liver and the wine… or is it?"
"She thinks a little better, but I’ll let you clean up and do the dishes, if you don’t mind."
"He’s a shark," Emily says. The elf laughs and says she will."
"There are no decorations on the lawn or the front of the brown and white Victorian at 93 Ridge Road."
"The elf gives Emily a shy side-glance. 'I took your Early American Writers the year before you retired. That was an awesome class.'"
"That's why it's stupid to think Peter ran off because of my drinking. Just three weeks before he disappeared, I picked up a one-year sobriety chip."
"I might as well have spent that time praying the sun would come up in the west."
"He’s listed as missing because that makes it simple for the police, but I think Detective Porter knows he’s dead as well as I do."
"I think she’s dead. I think some sick bastard raped her and killed her."
"I feel like all the systems are breaking down, you know?"
"Sometimes my job means asking unpleasant questions."
"She was happy with her job. She said she had everything a girl from Bibb County, Georgia, could want."
"Sometimes the universe throws you a rope. If it does, climb it."
"Gifts are fragile. You must never entrust yours to people who might break it."
"Because I don’t understand the world. I hardly even see the world."
"If you don’t think you’ll be able to reach it, but you can, just barely, and oh man, that… that sense of relief…"
"The idea that the creative impulse is a way to get rid of poison… or a kind of creative defecation… no. They don’t teach that."
"You don’t know who may have handled it, how many times have I told you that?"
"What cannot be cured must be endured," she murmurs.
"I did at first. He’s got a certain amount of charm."
"God sometimes asks us to pay up front in this life, and you paid a high cost."
"You will use it up and then you will have to rely on the memory of the ecstasy you once felt, but while you have it, keep it. Use it."
"He was passionate about the virtues of poetry."
"No! Less understandable! More crazy! But there’s something about doing it… I can’t explain…"
"Poetry is important to me because without it I am a dead engine. That I should be asked to write an essay about my poetry after sending so much of it to you is idiotic. My poetry is my essay."
"You need to go to bed, Olivia. You’re tired. I can see it in your face and hear it in your voice."
"Old age is a time of casting away, which is bad enough, but it’s also a time of escalating indignities."
"What’s the point when there’s no sound and he said—I got a kick out of this—he said ‘It doesn’t matter, I know all the dialogue.’"
"You two didn’t think this out very well, did you?"
"If he looks familiar, but that’s all I can say. Those skateboard kids come in all the time."
"We need to get her around to the other side. Can you help me push?"
"I say I’m staying in New York for the weekend. But not the city. My agent has invited me to spend the weekend in Montauk. Isn’t that cool?"
"I suppose you can come by, but don’t plan on staying long."
"She gets partway up, winces, and plops back down."
"And she stole that girl, who appeared to have some talent."
"But she said one thing I remembered. I didn’t when we talked at Starbucks, but I did after."
"I sound like a cricket, she thinks. One dying of thirst."
"I ought to remember. It was the next day that Mary was diagnosed with lung cancer."
"I told him separate cases involving two of the people we’ve taken would be a very large coincidence."
"All mammals are cannibals, but only homo sapiens has a silly taboo about it."
"Human flesh ensures longevity. Look at us, if you have any doubts."
"Healthy human flesh and blood cures epilepsy, it cures amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, it cures sciatica."
"Healthy human fat cures otosclerosis, the main cause of deafness."
"Eating healthy human brain tissue, especially the brain of a young person, cures Alzheimer's."
"Human muscle and bone marrow cure arthritis and sciatica."
"The thing about human flesh is that you start off curious. Then you get to liking it. Eventually you get to love it, and one day you can't get enough."
"Human flesh contains macro- and micronutrients that are available in such abundance in no other flesh."
"Human flesh cures neurological fats faster than they can be replaced."
"Just when you think you've seen the worst human beings have to offer, you find out you're wrong. There's no end to evil."
"I need to learn to trust myself more. Will have to work on that."
"As soon as you agree to stop all this dangerous foolishness and come home."
"I acted in self-defense, being in fear for my life."
"I would sell my soul for a glass of beer… and I don’t even like beer."
"How am I ever going to tell her what happened to her daughter?"