Cape Fear Quotes
"For every Flannery O’Connor whose work I could race through with delight, there were three like Virginia Woolf, who made me want to throw their books off a high cliff and leap after them."
"His pacing was superb, the flow of his prose irresistible, and his suspense watch-spring tight."
"The singular voice and style of the man overwhelmed me."
"I am most in awe of his ability to create characters who are as real as anyone I’ve met in life."
"The night was dark and the sky was high, and the world was a very large place."
"But at its base, it’s an ethical structure. It is based on the inviolability of the freedom of every citizen. And it works a hell of a lot more often than it doesn’t."
"I believe in the law. It’s a creaking, shambling, infuriating structure. There are inequities in it. Sometimes I wonder how our system of law manages to survive. But at its base, it’s an ethical structure."
"The law is my business. I believe in due process."
"It would have been bad enough just to see it, but to have the kids see it too! This is going to be a cheery household this weekend."
"I’ve never seen anything so pitiful or frightening."
"I have the belief that poisoning an animal is a more vicious and callous thing than murdering a human. They can’t understand. It’s a dirty shame the kids saw it."
"The business of living is a very precarious occupation."
"The untouchables. And now something has come in out of the darkness and struck one of us down. The charm isn’t working any more."
"The world’s oldest rationalization, darling."
"Charlie is a politician. The first aim is to make people happy. The second aim is to make people think they’re happy."
"Life is a continual process of compromise, Sammy. The idea is to come out the other end still clutching a few shreds of self-respect."
"But having Tommy there may simplify it. I can talk to him. I think I like that kid. There’s a look of competence about him."
"All this, he told himself, was reality. Night, earth, stars and the slumber of his family."
"Each second brought them closer to the return of danger. And he knew that Carol too listened to that clock."
"Making people is a special thing. It’s a special and a frightening responsibility."
"They make me feel like a doddering degenerate. Tommy is a good kid. The pendulum is swinging back."
"But there’s no boss because there’s no control of the wards. That’s where the rackets get a good hold."
"I was overwhelmed by my own competence. It was like trying to sell dirty post cards at a Sunday-school wienie roast."
"His strength was as the strength of ten because his grail was full."
"I'm going to be the most devout coward you ever heard of, honey."
"Life makes curious and unexpected demands on you."
"You are as brave as any man. You have warmth and strength."
"And I couldn’t stand a ponderous, humorless husband."
"It isn’t exactly my line, you know. I’m scared of Cady."
"But it’s going to be a lot more comfortable to be a target that can shoot back."
"It was the sort of day that raises the spirits."
"But were it my wife, I would take steps to see the strain is ended. Soon. It is like combat. She has committed all of her reserves. She is totally in action. She could be broken."
"I want it to stop going around and around. I want to stop being scared."
"It meant a reversal of all his values, of all the things he lived by."
"It was hard to believe Kersek was dead. Tough, competent, efficient Kersek. But, in dying, he had prevented the unthinkable from happening. There was that much."
"He searched through himself, looking for guilt, for a sense of shame. And found only a sense of savage satisfaction, a feeling of strong and primitive fulfillment."
"Woman of grace and spirit, pride and delicacy."