“
What a kid I got, I told him about the birds and the bees and he told me about the butcher and my wife.
”
”
Rodney Dangerfield
“
I sometimes give myself excellent advice. Occasionally, I even listen to it.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
“
Home is where, when you go there and tell people to get out, they have to leave.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
The wacky thing about those bad guys is that you can't count on them to be obvious. They forget to wax their mustaches and goatees, leave their horns at home, send their black hats to the dry cleaner's. They're funny like that.
”
”
Jim Butcher (White Night (The Dresden Files, #9))
“
He took a long draw then asked, “What’d I do?”
“You knew about the guy threatening my dad?”
He paused, shifted in his chair, so freaking busted, it wasn’t funny. “They told you?”
“Why, no, Swopes, they didn’t. Instead, they waited until the guy knocked the fuck out of my dad and readied him for spaceflight with duct tape then tried to kill me with a butcher’s knife.
”
”
Darynda Jones (Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson, #2))
“
If fucking up is power, I should be the Hulk by now.
”
”
Richard Kadrey (Butcher Bird)
“
Bob, would you be willing to take on Evil Bob?"
Bob's eyes darted nervously. "I'd . . . prefer not to. I'd really, really prefer not to. You have no idea. That me was crazy. And buff. He worked out.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
“
Let come the forces of night! We will stand!"
"We will get the hell out of here is what we will do," I muttered.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3))
“
Lea stood upon a fallen log ahead of us, staring ahead. Mouse walked up to her.
Gggrrrr rawf arrrgggrrrrarrrr," I said.
Mouse gave me an impatient glance, and somehow--I don't know if it was something in his body language or what--I became aware that he was telling me to sit down and shut up or he'd come over and make me.
I sat down. Something in me really didn't like that idea, but when I looked around, I saw that everyone else had done it too, and that made me feel better.
Mouse said, again in what sounded like perfectly clear English, "Funny. Now restore them."
Lea turned to look at the big dog and said, "Do you dare to give me commands, hound?"
Not your hound," Mouse said. I didn't know how he was doing it. His mouth wasn't moving or anything. "Restore them before I rip your ass off. Literally rip it off."
The Leanansidhe tilted her head back and let out a low laugh. "You are far from your sources of power here, my dear demon."
I live with a wizard. I cheat." He took a step toward her and his lips peeled up from his fangs in unmistakable hostility. "You want to restore them? Or do I kill you and get them back that way?"
Lea narrowed her eyes. Then she said, "You're bluffing."
One of the big dog's huge, clawed paws dug at the ground, as if bracing him for a leap, and his growl seemed to . . . I looked down and checked. It didn't seem to shake the ground. The ground was actually shaking for several feet in every direction of the dog. Motes of blue light began to fall from his jaws, thickly enough that it looked quite a bit like he was foaming at the mouth. "Try me."
The Leanansidhe shook her head slowly. Then she said, "How did Dresden ever win you?"
He didn't," Mouse said. "I won him.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Changes (The Dresden Files, #12))
“
(One does not simply walk into Mordor--except that was exactly what everyone in the story did anyway.)
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
Besides, do you think you would have come if I’d just popped into your tattoo shop one night around closing and
said, ‘Hello, I’m the Prince of Darkness. Think you could help me out
with a little war next Tuesday, say, sixish?
”
”
Richard Kadrey (Butcher Bird)
“
What's for dinner, Dad?" Pelops asked.
Tantalus had never liked his son. I don't know why. Maybe Tantalus knew the kid would take over his kingdom someday. Greek kings were always paranoid about stuff like that. Anyway, Tantalus gave his son an evil smile and pulled out a butcher's knife. "Funny you should ask.
”
”
Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson's Greek Gods)
“
If you turn into a hideous monster and I am sent to slay you, I will remember this and make it as painless as I can, out of respect for you.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Changes (The Dresden Files, #12))
“
Where do you find a stomach on a Thursday afternoon in Reno? "Chinatown?" suggests someone. "Costco?" "Butcher Boys." Tracy pulls his phone from a pocket. "Hello, I'm from the university" - the catchall preamble for unorthodox inquiries.
”
”
Mary Roach (Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal)
“
When the world began, there were no such things as monsters. Demons were just fallen angels who, booted out of Heaven and bored with Hell, wandered the Earth sticking little girls’ pigtails in inkwells and sinking the occasional continent.
”
”
Richard Kadrey (Butcher Bird)
“
He had noticed my bandaged hand.
"An accident," Warthrop said tersely.
"Dr. Warthrop chopped off my finger with a butcher knife."
Von Helrung's brow knotted up in confusion. "By accident?"
"No," I answered. "That part was on purpose.
”
”
Rick Yancey (The Isle of Blood (The Monstrumologist, #3))
“
Fine’s a funny word, don’t you think? I don’t think there’s another like it in the English language
that says so much while actually saying so little. How many wives have told their husbands, “I’m
fine,” when they really mean, “I want to cut your balls off with a butcher knife”? How many men have
told their girlfriends, “You look fine,” when they really mean, “You need to go back to the gym and
work out—a lot.” It’s the universal way of saying we’re just peachy—when we’re really anything
but.
”
”
Emma Chase (Tangled (Tangled, #1))
“
This isn’t going to work,” Justine murmured.
“It is going to work,” I told her, keeping my tone confident. “We’ll breeze right in. The Rack will be with us.”
Justine glanced at me with an arched eyebrow. “The Rack?”
“The Rack is more than just boobs, Justine,” I told her soberly. “It’s an energy field created by all living boobs. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Dangerous Women)
“
Yes, I was standing on nothing but congealed starlight. Yes, I was walking up through a savage storm, the wind threatening to tear me off and throw me into the freezing waters of Lake Michigan far below. Yes, I was using a legendary and enchanted means of travel to transcend the border between one dimension and the next, and on my way to an epic struggle between ancient and elemental forces.
But all i could think to say, between panting breaths, was, "Yeah. Sure. They couldn't possibly have made this an escalator.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4))
“
Brooke?" he finally found the sense to ask. "What are you doing here?"
"I need a gun."
This was not how his dream was supposed to go.
”
”
Shannon K. Butcher (The Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance)
“
None of my issues have included memory loss or unconscious actions," she said.
Thomas squinted back at her. "If they had, how would you know it?"
Molly frowned. "Valid point.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
Come with me if you want to live.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
In the void, there is no distinction of east and west."
Gwen blinked slightly at that. "I know all of those words, and yet when strung together like that I have no idea what they mean.
”
”
Jim Butcher (The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1))
“
You're supposed to be a spirit of intellect. I don't understand why you're obsessed with sex."
Bob's voice got defensive. "It's an academic interest, Harry."
"Oh yeah? Well maybe I don't think it's fair to let your academia go peeping in other people's houses."
"Wait a minute. My academia doesn't just peep -"
I held up a hand. "Save it. I don't want to hear it."
He grunted. "You're trivializing what getting out for a bit means to me, Harry. You're insulting my masculinity."
"Bob," I said, "you're a skull . You don't have any masculinity to insult."
"Oh yeah?" Bob challenged me. "Pot kettle black, Harry! Have you gotten a date yet? Huh? Most men have something better to do in the middle of the night than play with their chemistry sets.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1))
“
And in the past, Archie wondered, was it just that fewer people cheated? Were they more honest, and did they leave their front doors open, did they leave their kids with the neighbors, pay social calls, run up tabs with the butcher? The funny thing about getting old in a country is people always want to hear that from you. They want to hear it really was once a green and pleasant land. They need it.
”
”
Zadie Smith (White Teeth)
“
Senator. If you call my friend a liar one more time, I will take it badly."
"Excuse me?" Arnos said, his eyebrows rising up.
"I suggest you find an alternate shortsighted, egomaniacally ridiculous reason to blatantly, recklessly ignore an obvious threat to the Realm simply because you don't wish it to exist. If you cannot restrain yourself from base slander, I will be pleased to meet you in juris macto and personally rip your forked tongue from your head.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera, #3))
“
I stared at MacFinn for a long moment. I believed that he was telling me the truth. That he didn’t have much control, if any, over his actions when he transformed. Though it occurred to me that if he wanted someone dead, he could probably point his monster-self in the right direction before he lost control.
Note to self: Do not cut MacFinn off in traffic.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2))
“
The only fault he found with her was that she did not sing at her work.
“Folks should always sing at their work,” he insisted. “Sounds cheerful-like.”
“Not always,” retorted Valancy. “Fancy a butcher singing at his work. Or an undertaker.
”
”
L.M. Montgomery (The Blue Castle)
“
He was wrong, that doesn't make him a villian. That makes him an asshole.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, #11))
“
Okay. Take a peek, but I swear if you try anything funny, I’ll beat your head in with my flashlight.
”
”
Shannon K. Butcher
“
They always have good coffee here,” Ebenezar said a few moments later. “And they don’t call it funny names,” I said. “It’s just coffee. Not frappalattegrandechino.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, #11))
“
I had bitten into my tongue, and I either had to spit or swallow. I swallowed. No comments, please.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2))
“
Then this," Grimm said, "is what I believe professional inquisitors refer to as a clue."
"In my considered judgment as an occasional inquisitor for the Spirearch," Benedict said, "I believe you may be correct.
”
”
Jim Butcher (The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1))
“
That woman," Grimm said quietly, "drives me quite insane."
Kettle grunted. "Why'd you marry her, then?
”
”
Jim Butcher (The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1))
“
BLARGLE SLORG NOTH HARGHLE FTHAGN! You know. The usual.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
You think you’re funny.” “Oh, I know I’m funny. Unappreciated, but funny.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4))
“
Try not to look like that," Ascher said under breath, after we were in the elevator.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Like you're expecting ninjas to leap out of the trash cans. This is a party."
"Everyone knows there's no such things as ninjas," I scoffed. "But it will be something. Count on it.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
We didn't have time to get you an actual haircut," she said. "Seriously, did you do it yourself? Maybe without a mirror?"
I put a hand up to my head self-consciously and said, "I had some help from the General. And, hey, I didn't say anything about your man-shoes."
"They're steel-toed," she said calmly. "In case I need to plant them in anyone's ass as a result of him calling them man-shoes. And seriously, you let Toot help you with your hair?
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
Mary had the same face as ma used to have sitting staring into the ashes it was funny that face it slowly grew over the other one until one day you looked and the person you knew was gone. And instead there was a half-ghost sitting there who had only one thing to say: All the beautiful things of this world are lies. They count for nothing in the end.
”
”
Patrick McCabe (The Butcher Boy)
Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
“
I'm not exactly a useless cream puff.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
Tropical trees had been planted throughout the room, along with bright flowering plants that were busy committing the olfactory floral equivalent of aggravated assault.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
I know you haven't burned down any buildings in a while," she said, "but if you start feeling the need...
”
”
Jim Butcher (Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15))
“
What the hell kind of Hell was this supposed to be?
”
”
Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
“
Kestus idly added theoretical torture to the theoretical murder, because done right, it might be funny.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Princeps' Fury (Codex Alera, #5))
“
Fear is a funny thing. In the right light, even tiny and insignificant fears can suddenly grow, swelling up to monstrous proportions.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, #7))
“
There's a funny smell around here, anyway. I think it's mediocrity.
”
”
A.J. Butcher (The Frankenstein Factory (Spy High, #1))
“
You're not the butcher, selling sausages. You're the cow, pre-sausage.
”
”
Oliver Markus Malloy (The Ugly Truth About Self-Publishing: Not another cookie-cutter contemporary romance (On Writing and Self-Publishing a Book, #2))
“
The government isn't the mob, Harry."
"Aren't they?" I asked. "Pay them money every year to protect you, and God help you if you don't.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Brief Cases (The Dresden Files, #15.5))
“
Mortimer Lindquist seemed to have finally given in to the inevitable. I'd seen him with a bad toupee, and with an even worse comb-over, but this was the first time I'd seen him sporting a full-on Charles Xavier.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
“
Tragedies, I was coming to realize through my daily studies in humanities both in and out of the classroom, were a luxury. They were constructions of an affluent society, full of sorrow and truth but without moral function. Stories of the vanquishing of the spirit expressed and underscored a certain societal spirit to spare. The weakening of the soul, the story of the downfall and the failed overcoming - trains missed, letters not received, pride flaring, the demolition of one's own offspring, who were then served up in stews - this was awe-inspiring, wounding entertainment told uselessly and in comfort at tables full of love and money. Where life was meagerer, where the tables were only half full, the comic triumph of the poor was the useful demi-lie. Jokes were needed. And then the baby feel down the stairs. This could be funny! Especially in a place and time where worse things happened. It wasn't that suffering was a sweepstakes, but it certainly was relative. For understanding and for perspective, suffering required a butcher's weighing. And to ease the suffering of the listener, things had better be funny. Though they weren't always. And this is how, sometimes, stories failed us: Not that funny. Or worse, not funny in the least.
”
”
Lorrie Moore (A Gate at the Stairs)
“
I think gender can take a lesson from sadomasochism (S/M): gender needs to be safe, sane, and consensual.
Gender is not safe.
If i change my gender, I'm at risk of homocide, suicide or a life devoid of half my responsibilities.
If I'm born with a body that gives mixed gender signals, I'm at risk of being butchered - fixed, mutilated.
Gender is not safe.
And gender is not sane.
It's not sane to call a rainbow black and white.
It's not sane to demand we fit into one or the other only.
It's not sane that we classify people in order to oppress them as women or glorify them as men.
Gender is not sane.
And gender is not consensual.
We're born: a doctor assigns us a gender. It's documented by the state, enforced by the legal profession, sanctified by the church, and it's bought and sold in the media.
We have no say in our gender - we're not allowed to question it, play with it, work it out with our friends, lovers or family.
Gender is not consensual.
Safe gender is being who and what we want to be when we want to be that, with no threat censure or violence.
Safe gender is going as far in an direction as we wish with not threats to our health, or to anyone else's.
Safe gender is not being pressured into passing, not having to lie, not having to hide.
Sane gender is asking questions about gender - talking to people who do gender and opening up about our gender histories and our gender desires.
Sane gender is probably very, very funny.
Consensual gender is respecting each others definitions of gender , and respecting the intentions of others to be inclusive in their own time.
Consensual gender is non violent in that it doesn't force its way in on anyone.
Consensual gender opens its arms and welcomes all people as gender outcasts - whoever is willing to admit to it.
Gender has a lot to learn from S/M.
”
”
Kate Bornstein (Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us)
“
Did David beg you to stop when you decided to play Lobotomy Barbie with his face? I bet he pleaded with you, and you loved the sound. But the funny thing is, Mr. Carmichael, you and I have something in common. I’ll tell you a little secret,” she says. A devastatingly beautiful smile creeps across her lips as she leans close to his ear. “I love the sound when my victims beg too.
”
”
Brynne Weaver (Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1))
“
Could he be my Bertie, the cheeky butcher’s boy? I had walked out with him when I was a reluctant servant in Mr Buchanan’s household. Dear funny Bertie, who had been so self-conscious about reeking of meat. Bertie, the boy who had taken me to the fair and won me the little black-and-white china dog that was in my suitcase now, carefully wrapped in my nightgown to prevent any chips.
”
”
Jacqueline Wilson (Little Stars (Hetty Feather Book 5))
“
Lysimachus probably wouldn’t have listened at all. More likely, he’d have smacked her across the face. Funny, really. I could unleash violence and death on women and children in Mahec, but I could no more hit a woman than fly in the air; because I’m civilised, I suppose. I guess the difference is between what happens offstage and on. A manager once told me, you can have your hero butcher entire nations in a messenger’s report, but for God’s sake don’t have him hit a woman or a child on stage. You’d lose all sympathy.
”
”
K.J. Parker (How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It (The Siege #2))
“
Dorian might have found it funny—so typically Celaena to make such a flamboyant return—had he not been utterly petrified. She had drawn a line in the sand. Worse than that, she’d defeated one of the king’s deadliest generals. No one had done that and lived. Ever. Somewhere in Wendlyn, his friend was changing the world. She was fulfilling the promise she’d made him. She had not forgotten him, or any of them still here. And perhaps when they figured out a way to destroy that tower and free magic from his father’s yoke, she would know her friends had not forgotten her, either. That he had not forgotten her. So Dorian let his father rage. He sat in on those meetings and shut down his revulsion and horror when his father sent a third minister to the butchering block. For Sorscha, for the promise of keeping her safe, of someday, perhaps, not having to hide what and who he was, he kept on his well-worn mask, offered banal suggestions about what to do regarding Aelin, and pretended. One last time. When Celaena got back, when she returned as she’d sworn she would … Then they would set about changing the world together.
”
”
Sarah J. Maas (Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3))
“
Freydis lifted a hand and rubbed briefly at the spot on her chin where the gun’s muzzle had left a mild indentation. Then she said, to Murphy, “Are you seeing anyone?”
Murphy blinked.
“Mortals make the best lovers by far,” Freydis explained. “And this job means I’m basically sexually frustrated around the clock. But it’s hard to find mortals I respect.”
Murphy’s cheeks turned bright pink. “Um.”
Freydis frowned slightly and glanced from Murphy to me and back. “I don’t mind sharing.”
“I’m . . . I’m Catholic,” Murphy said.
Freydis’s eyes shone with a wicked sparkle. “I don’t mind conflicted, either.”
Murphy gave me a somewhat desperate glance.
Huh. I’d officially seen everything now. Murphy asking for a rescue. From monsters and madmen, she’d never cried uncle.
It had taken a redhead.
“Business first, maybe?” I suggested.
“We could all die tonight,” Freydis said. “But as you wish.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16))
“
Olympian, I should think, from the colors and the fur trim of his coat,” Master Ferus put in. “Olympian and, it would seem, possessed of a fury. Which is funny, if you know enough history.
”
”
Jim Butcher (The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1))
“
Fine’s a funny word, don’t you think? I don’t think there’s another like it in the English language that says so much while actually saying so little. How many wives have told their husbands, “I’m fine,” when they really mean, “I want to cut your balls off with a butcher knife?” How many men have told their girlfriends, “You look fine,” when they really mean, “You need to go back to the gym and work out – a lot.” It’s the universal way of saying we’re just peachy – when we’re really anything but.
”
”
Emma Chase (Tangled (Tangled, #1))
“
The funny thing is,” she said, “that I still love him. I don’t want to—he butchered my mother and my little brother, then blew his own head off—but I still find that, when I think about him, I still feel some love. Pathetic, isn’t it?
”
”
Gary A. Braunbeck (Halfway Down The Stairs)
“
Temptations came to him, in middle age, tentatively and without insistence, like a neglected butcher-boy who asks for a Christmas box in February for no more hopeful reason that than he didn’t get one in December. He had no more idea of succumbing to them than he had of purchasing the fish-knives and fur boas that ladies are impelled to sacrifice through the medium of advertisement columns during twelve months of the year. Still, there was something impressive in this unasked-for renunciation of possibly latent enormities.
”
”
Saki (Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches)
“
Father,” he said finally, “I don’t understand why the Council had to question Padan Fain.” With an effort he took his eyes off the woods and looked across Bella at Tam. “It seems to me, the decision you reached could have been made right on the spot. The Mayor frightened everybody half out of their wits, talking about Aes Sedai and the false Dragon here in the Two Rivers.”
“People are funny, Rand. The best of them are. Take Haral Luhhan. Master Luhhan is a strong man, and a brave one, but he can’t bear to see butchering done. Turns pale as a sheet.”
“What does that have to do with anything? Everybody knows Master Luhhan can’t stand the sight of blood, and nobody but the Coplins and the Congars thinks anything of it.”
“Just this, lad. People don’t always think or behave the way you might believe they would. Those folk back there…let the hail beat their crops into the mud, and the wind take off every roof in the district, and the wolves kill half their livestock, and they’ll roll up their sleeves and start from scratch. They’ll grumble, but they won’t waste any time with it. But you give them just the thought of Aes Sedai and a false Dragon in Ghealdan, and soon enough they’ll start thinking that Ghealdan is not that far the other side of the Forest of Shadows, and a straight line from Tar Valon to Ghealdan wouldn’t pass that much to the east of us. As if the Aes Sedai wouldn’t take the road through Caemlyn and Lugard instead of traveling cross-country! By tomorrow morning half the village would have been sure the entire war was about to descend on us. It would take weeks to undo. A fine Bel Tine that would make. So Bran gave them the idea before they could get it themselves.
They’ve seen the Council take the problem under construction, and by now they’ll be hearing what we decided. They chose us for the Village Council because they trust we can reason things out in the best way for everybody. They trust our opinions. Even Cenn’s, which doesn’t say much for the rest of us, I suppose. At any rate, they will hear there isn’t anything to worry about, and they’ll believe it. It is not that they couldn’t reach the same conclusion, or would not, eventually, but this way we won’t have Festival ruined, and nobody has to spend weeks worrying about something that isn’t likely to happen. If it does against all odds…well, the patrols will give us enough warning to do what we can.
”
”
Robert Jordan (The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1))
“
Whack! Came the loud sound of a blade hitting a butcher’s block from around the corner in the kitchen.
“Night, bruh!” Eleu said cheerily to the now quite dead fish.
”
”
James Eldridge (Islanders: The Pacific Chronicles (Book #1))
“
Then I get to work hacking the dead guy to pieces. Nice, easily digestible pieces to ship off to a contact who enjoys using them as bait in his arctic fishing expeditions. Weird guy but he pays good green and the cops aren't exactly trolling the arctic nets for missing perps. It's basically recycling. I'm a fucking humanitarian, an eco fucking warrior.
”
”
J. Bree (The Butcher of the Bay: Part I (Mounts Bay Saga #1))
“
And in the past, Archie wondered, was it just that fewer people cheated? Were they more honest, and did they leave their front doors open, did they leave their kids with the neighbors, pay social calls, run up tabs with the butcher? The funny thing about getting old in a country is people always want to hear that from you. They want to hear it really was once a green and pleasant land. They need it. Archie wondered if his daughter needed it. She was looking at him funny. Her mouth downturned, her eyes almost pleading. But what could he tell her? New Years come and go, but no amount of resolutions seem to change the fact that there are bad blokes. There were always plenty of bad blokes.
”
”
Zadie Smith (White Teeth)
“
Marry me, Sloane, and we'll go on crazy adventures together forever, and fuck shit up, and be best friends, and do karate in the garage, and make love every day and grow old together. Because I can't imagine anyone I'd rather spend all those moments with than you.
”
”
Brynne Weaver (Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1))
“
We take the original plays of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and Markus gives them . . . well, the necessary polish.” “Aren’t the plays good enough by themselves?” Barbara asked. “Well, for the general public they’re sometimes just too difficult and dry, so we cut out the long monologues and concentrate on the funny parts and, above all, the bloody passages. Many of the pieces have not yet been translated into German, and Markus takes care of that, as well.” “I butcher Shakespeare’s plays by turning them into bloody spectacles for the masses,” Markus sighed in despair. “Carefully constructed pentameter, beautiful images—for that the world clearly has no taste nowadays. The more blood, the better. But I myself have written original pieces that—” “Yes, yes,” Malcolm interrupted, “that would be enough to make Shakespeare cry, I know—or simply put him to sleep. I’m afraid you’re boring the ladies, Markus. Just like your plays. We can’t afford experiments. After all, I have a whole troupe to feed,” he said, clapping his hands. “But now it’s time to get back to building the stage. Will you excuse us?” He bowed to Magdalena and Barbara and stomped off toward the stage, but not without first casting a final, reproachful look at his two actors. “Old slave driver,” Markus mumbled and followed him, while Matheo paused a moment and winked at Barbara. “Then can we look forward to seeing you again at tomorrow’s performance? We’ll save a few seats for you up in the gallery. Ciao, signorine.” “Ciao,” Barbara said, batting her eyelashes as Matheo, in one single, flowing movement, jumped back onto the stage. Magdalena grinned at her sister. “Ciao?” she asked. “Is that the way a Schongau hangman’s daughter says good-bye, or are you an Italian contessa addressing her prince just before their wedding?
”
”
Oliver Pötzsch (The Werewolf of Bamberg (The Hangman's Daughter, #5))
“
I’ll tell the killer to be sure to operate during business hours next time.
”
”
Jim Butcher
“
I eventually came to realise that I was a part of his little family, and by his gracious consent was allowed to remain in his apartment. Cats. Go figure.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files: Fool Moon #1)
“
The tennis coach slowly moved his fingers towards his friend’s arsehole and shakily circled the rim as instructed.
“Anything abnormal there?”
“It’s hairy,” Butcher complained.
“It is very hairy,” the doctor agreed. “But, although an arsehole that hairy is undoubtedly unusual, it’s not technically an abnormality.
”
”
Simon Jackman
“
Daily Bread by Stewart Stafford
Butcher short-changed me again,
There’s sawdust in the sausages,
Grocer’s growing grosser and then,
A proposition with my messages.
The driving instructor’s pissed on bends,
I went and told his mother,
The barman’s watering down pints for friends
Like he’s feeding his baby brother.
The barber’s still one hair off,
One side doesn’t match the other,
Bookie won’t take my bets and lends,
The landlord another sucker.
Tossed out in the street to fend for myself,
With all the other refuse,
Garbage man fills his truck with me,
At least I still have one use.
© Stewart Stafford, 2021. All rights reserved.
”
”
Stewart Stafford
“
He heaved a breath. Then set his jaw, nodded, and said, “Got it.”
“Good man,” I said. “You’re handling this well.”
“I am not,” Bradley said without slowing his steps. “I am not.”
“Then you are freaking out in the most useful way possible,” I said. “Keep it up.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Battle Ground (The Dresden Files, #17))
“
Catching the look of surprise on my face, the priest gave me a feral grin. “I think that was not the thing you wanted.” “You’re right,” I agreed. Even as I kicked myself for not grabbing the butcher knife, the absurdity of the situation tickled my funny bone. I was fighting a priest with a soup ladle, of all things. “I’ll give you a moment to switch weapons if you wish,” he offered generously. “Naw, it’s fine. It’s more fun this way.” I meant it, too.
”
”
Honor Raconteur (The Lost Mage (Advent Mage Cycle, #6))