Dexter Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Dexter. Here they are! All 100 of them:

β€œ
You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.
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”
Dr. Seuss (Oh, The Places You’ll Go!)
β€œ
Dexter, I love you so much. So, so much, and I probably always will. I just don't like you anymore. I'm sorry.
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”
David Nicholls (One Day)
β€œ
I just thought to my self, all of a sudden, that we had something in common. A natural chemistry, if you will. And I had a feeling that something big was going to happen. To both of us. That we were, in fact, meant to be together.
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
Remy: Did you really believe, that first day, that we were meant to be together? Dexter: You're here, aren't you?
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.
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P.G. Wodehouse (Uneasy Money)
β€œ
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
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Marcus Tullius Cicero
β€œ
Nothing in life is fair. Fair is a dirty word and I'll thank you not to use that language around me.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3))
β€œ
Are those the only options? Nothing or forever?
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
I'm a very neat monster." ~Dexter Morgan
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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You're driving me NORMAL!
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
β€œ
Weren't we all crazy in our sleep? What was sleep, after all, but the process by which we dumped our insanity into a dark subconscious pit and came out on the other side ready to eat cereal instead of our neighbor's children?
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Can I say something?' 'Go on' 'I'm a little drunk' 'Me too. That's okay.' 'Just....I missed you, you know.' 'I missed you too.' 'But so, so much, Dexter. There were so many things I wanted to talk to you about, and you weren't there-' 'same here.' 'I tell you what it is. It's.....When I didn't see you, I thought about you every day, I mean EVERY DAY in some way or another-' 'same here.' '-Even if it was just "I wish Dexter could see this" or "Where's Dexter now?" or "Christ that Dexter, what an idiot", you know what I mean, and seeing you today, well, I thought I'd got you back - my BEST friend. And now all this, the wedding, the baby- I'm so happy for you, Dex, but it feels like I've lost you again.'- -'You know what happens you have a family, your responsibilities change, you lose touch with people' 'It won't be like that, I promise.' 'Do you?' 'Absolutely' 'You swear? No more disappearing?' 'I won't if you won't.' Their lips touched now, mouths pursed tight, their eyes open, both of them stock still. The moment held, a kind of glorious confusion.
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”
David Nicholls (One Day)
β€œ
I did not like this feeling of having feelings.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Watching a dog try to chew a large piece of toffee is a pastime fit for gods. Mr. Fusspot's mixed ancestry had given him a dexterity of jaw that was truly awesome. He somersaulted happily around the floor, making faces like a rubber gargoyle in a washing machine.
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Terry Pratchett (Making Money (Discworld, #36; Moist Von Lipwig, #2))
β€œ
Life's only obligation, afterall, was to be interesting.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
As the possibility of a relationship had faded, Emma had endeavored to harden herself to Dexter's indifference and these days a remark like this caused no more pain than, say, a tennis ball thrown sharply at the back of her head.
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David Nicholls (One Day)
β€œ
Whatever made me the way I am left me hollow, empty inside, unable to feel. It doesn't seem like a big deal. I'm quite sure most people fake an awful lot of everyday human contact. I just fake it all. I fake it very well, and the feelings are never there.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
But as I have noticed on more than one occaision, life itself is unfair, and there is no complaint department, so we might as well accept things the way they happen, clean up the mess, and move on.
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”
Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3))
β€œ
Oh, God," I said. "No, it's Dexter," he replied, offering me his hand, which I ignored. He glanced behind him, then back at me. "I'll see you soon," he said, and grinned at me. "Like hell," I replied,
”
”
Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
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Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You’ll Go!)
β€œ
Anybody can be charming if they don't mind faking it, saying all the stupid, obvious, nauseating things that a conscience keeps most people from saying. Happily, I don't have a conscience. I say them.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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I'm quite sure more people fake an awful lot of everyday human contact. I just fake all of it." --Dexter
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Really now: If you can't get me my newspaper on time, how can you expect me to refrain from killing people?
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
So why do they call it the crease?” Dex asks in fascination after the second period commences. β€œAnd why does it sound so dirty?” On my other side, Allie leans in to grin at Dexter. β€œBabe, everything about hockey sounds dirty. Five-hole? Poke check? Backdoor?” She sighs. β€œCome home with me one time and listen to my dad yell Jam it in! over and over again when he watches hockey, and then you can talk to me about dirty. Not to mention uncomfortable.
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Elle Kennedy (The Deal (Off-Campus, #1))
β€œ
For the moment, he's off plotting his Igoresque revenge. I don't know about you, but I have this image of him rubbing his hands together and laughing like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory. (Kyrian)
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Sherrilyn Kenyon (Night Pleasures (Dark-Hunter #1))
β€œ
Perhaps because I'll never be one, humans are interesting to me.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Don't you give me no rotten tomato," Dexter sang, "just 'cause to your crazy shit I cannot relate-o.
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
When I return to the world, I will be a man. I will walk among you. I will lick my lips with my small, dexterous tongue. I will shake hands with other men, grasping firmly with my opposable thumbs. And I will teach all people that I know. And when I see a man or a woman or a child in trouble, I will extend my hand, both metaphorically and physically. I will offer my hand. To him. To her. To you. To the world. I will be a good citizen, a good partner in the endeavour of life that we all share.
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Garth Stein (The Art of Racing in the Rain)
β€œ
I often find myself in situations where it seems to me like everyone else has read the instruction book
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
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Some of my Arcanum bunkmates taught me a card game called dogs-breath. I returned the favor by giving an impromptu lesson in psychology, probability, and manual dexterity. I won almost two whole talents before they stopped inviting me back to their games.
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Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
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I'm not sure what I am. I just know there's something dark in me. I hide it. I certainly don't talk about it, but it's there always, this Dark Passenger. And when he's driving, I feel alive, half sick with the thrill of complete wrongness. I don't fight him, I don't want to. He's all I've got. Nothing else could love me, not even... especially not me. Or is that just a lie the Dark Passenger tells me? Because lately there are these moments when I feel connected to something else... someone. It's like the mask is slipping and things... people... who never mattered before are suddenly starting to matter. It scares the hell out of me.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Do not call up that which you cannot put down.
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H.P. Lovecraft (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
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Feeling - what authentic human fun!
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3))
β€œ
Why do so many people start their messages with, "It's me"? Of course it is you. We all know that. But who the hell ARE you?
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
...and once again Dexter is struck by how easy conversation can be when no-one is in their right mind
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David Nicholls (One Day)
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It’s like, everything really is two ways, the way we all pretend it is and the way it really is
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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There is nothing like a crisis to define who you are.
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Dexter Morgan
β€œ
Luckily the smoke raised the alarm and everyone fled we don’t think any innocent people died. Although when the cavern collapsed two guards were crushed.” β€œYeah I would have been disappointed too.” Jason grinned, his grin was soon wiped off his face when he noticed Dexter’s face change and disapproval of his joke.
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Mark A. Cooper (Royal Decree (Jason Steed #4))
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The mind picks some very bad times to take a walk doesn't it?
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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I was filled with dread at the thought my mind had skipped town and left me behind to pay the rent." --Dexter
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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A man who discovers his pants are on fire tends to have very little time to worry about somebody else's box of matches
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
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I stood up. It was all too much. I could not even meet my own expectations, and to be asked to deal with all theirs too was suffocating.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3))
β€œ
I am unlovable...I have tried to involve myself in other people, in relationships, and even - in my sillier moments - in love. But it doesn't work. Something in me is broken or missing and sooner or later the other person catches me Acting or one of Those Nights comes along.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
I think people understand things different when they get older. It’s not a question of getting soft, or seeing things in the gray areas instead of black and white. I really believe I’m just understanding things different. Better.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
In my life long study of human beings, I have found that no matter how hard they try, they have found no way yet to prevent the arrival of Monday morning. And they do try, of course, but Monday always comes, and all the drones have to scuttle back to their dreary workday lives of meaningless toin and suffering.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3))
β€œ
Another beautiful Miami day. Mutilated corpses with a chance of afternoon showers. I got dressed and went to work.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds.
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”
NapolΓ©on Bonaparte
β€œ
But Jace", Clary said. "Valentine taught him more than just fighting. He taught him languages, and how to play the piano" "That was Jocelyn's influence." Sebastian said her name unwillingly, as if he hated the sound of it. "She thought Valentine ought to be able to talk about books, art, music...not just killing things. He passed that on to Jace." A wrought iron blue gate rose to their left. Sebastian ducked under it and beckoned Clary to follow him. She didn't have to duck but went after him, her hands stuffed into her pockets. "What about you?" she asked. He held up his hands. They were unmistakably her mother's hands - dexterous, long-fingered, meant for holding a brush or a pen. "I learned to play the instruments of war, " he said, "and paint in blood. I am not like Jace.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β€œ
Why bother inflicting enormous pain on yourself when sooner or later Life would certainly get around to doing it for you?
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter By Design (Dexter, #4))
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He was somewhat of a loner by temperament--because though never wholly happy when alone, he was usually slightly more miserable when with other people.
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Colin Dexter (The Wench is Dead (Inspector Morse #8))
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I am not shy about admitting my modest talents. For example, I am happy to admit that I am better than average at clever remarks, and I also have a flair for getting people to like me. But to be perfectly fair to myself, I am ever-ready to confess my shortcomings, too, and a quick round of soul-searching forced me to admit that I had never been any good at all at breathing water. As I hung there from the seat belt, dazed and watching the water pour in and swirl around my head, this began to seem like a very large character flaw.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
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And then more quiet, silence so deep it almost drowned out the roar of the night music that pounded away in my secret self.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
For the first time I could remember, I felt weak, woozy and stupidβ€” like a human-being. Like a very small and helpless human-being.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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I know family comes first, but shouldn't that mean after breakfast?
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
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Me, feeling. What a concept.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, Voices whisper in the trees, Tonight is Halloween!
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Dexter Kozen
β€œ
And here I always thought morality was useless
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
you can’t use logic on human behavior.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
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Hope is for people who can't see the Truth.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter Is Dead (Dexter, #8))
β€œ
But you, fine sir." John Miller clapped Dexter on the shoulder, a bit unsteadily. "You have problems of your own." "This is true," Dexter replied, nodding. "The women," John Miller sighed. Dexter wiped a hand over his face, and glanced down the road. "The women. Indeed, dear squire, they perplex me as well." "Ah, the fair Remy," John Miller said grandly, and I felt a flush run up my face. Lissa, in the front seat, put a hand to her mouth. "The fair Remy," Dexter repeated, "did not see me as a worthwhile risk." "Indeed." "I am, of course, a rogue. A rapscallion. A musician. I would bring her nothing but poverty, shame, and bruised shins from my flailing limbs. She is the better for our parting." John Miller pantomined stabbing himself in the heart. "Cold words, my squire." "Huffah," Dexter agreed. "Huffah," John Miller repeated, "Indeed.
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
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Rectory always sounded to me like a place you would find a proctologist.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3))
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No big deal. We all have blood in us, the trick is keeping it inside.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter Is Delicious (Dexter, #5))
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Memory sometimes makes merciful deletions.
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H.P. Lovecraft (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)
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I had become a perfect fake human, saying the stupid and pointless things that humans say to each other all day long.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
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I let it ring. I wanted to breathe for a few minutes, and I could think of nothing that couldn't wait. Besides, I had paid almost $50 for an answering machine. Let it earn its keep.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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And because he felt like he might burst open and because he lacked the dexterity in English to say all that he was thinking--how in his estimation, the more you lived the more regret and longing you suffered, that life was a glorious catastrophe--Pasquale Tursi said, only, "Yes.
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Jess Walter (Beautiful Ruins)
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Style has a profound meaning to Black Americans. If we can’t drive, we will invent walks and the world will envy the dexterity of our feet. If we can’t have ham, we will boil chitterlings; if we are given rotten peaches, we will make cobblers; if given scraps, we will make quilts; take away our drums, and we will clap our hands. We prove the human spirit will prevail. We will take what we have to make what we need. We need confidence in our knowledge of who we are.
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Nikki Giovanni
β€œ
A startled giggle burst out of me. Paranormal Management Society. PMS. I hadn't even thought of it like that.
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Rachel Hawkins (School Spirits (Hex Hall, #4))
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Was insanity really easier to accept than unconsciousness?
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
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I thought this was a cookout. You know, dogs and burgers, Tater Tots, ambrosia salad" Dexter picked up a box of Twinkies, tossing them into the cart. "And Twinkies." "It is,"..."Except that it's a cookout thrown by my mother." "And?" "And my mother doesn't cook." He looked at me waiting. "At all. My mother doesn't cook at all." "She must cook sometimes." "Nope." "Everyone can make scrambled eggs, Remy. It's programmed into you at birth, the default setting. Like being able to swim and knowing not to mix pickles with oatmeal. You just KNOW.
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
That's why I liked him, I think. Another guy pretending to be human, just like me.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Have you noticed how difficult it is just to get along in the world? If you're no good at all in your job, people treat you badly and eventually you will be unemployed. And if you're a little better than competent, everyone expects miracles from you, every single time. Like most of life, it's a no-win situation. And if you dare to mention it, no matter how creatively you phrase your complaints, you are shunned as a whiner.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter Is Delicious (Dexter, #5))
β€œ
As I've said, freedom is really an illusion. Anytime we think we have a real choice, it just means we haven't seen the shotgun aimed at our navel.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter Is Delicious (Dexter, #5))
β€œ
After a long moment I closed the freezer door. I wanted to lie down and press my cheek against the cool linoleum. Instead I reached out with my little finger and flipped the Barbie's head. It went thack thack against the door. I flipped it again. Thack thack. Whee. I had a new hobby.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
I don't know if you have noticed this, but it is quite possible for two human beings to have a conversation in which one or both parties involved has absolutely no idea what they're talking about.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter By Design (Dexter, #4))
β€œ
The key to a happy life is to have accomplishments to be proud of and purpose to look forward to, and at the moment I had both. How wonderful it was to be me.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
β€œ
It happens; incompetence is rewarded more often than not.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Plastic ware," he said slowly, "like knives and forks and spoons?" I brushed a bit of dirt off the back of my carβ€”was that a scratch?β€”and said casually, "Yeah, I guess.Just the basics, you know." "Did you need plastic ware?" he asked. I shrugged. "Because," he went on, and I fought the urge to squirm, "it's so funny, because I need plastic ware. Badly." "Can we go inside, please?" I asked, slamming the trunk shut. "It's hot out here." He looked at the bag again, then at me. And then, slowly, the smile I knew and dreaded crept across his face. "You bought me plastic ware," he said. "Didn't you?' "No," I growled, picking at my license plate. "You did!" he hooted, laughing out loud. "You bought me some forks. And knives. And spoons. Becauseβ€”" "No," I said loudly. "β€”you love me!" He grinned, as if he'd solved the puzzler for all time, as I felt a flush creep across my face. Stupid Lissa. I could have killed her. "It was on sale," I told him again, as if this was some kind of an excuse. "You love me," he said simply, taking the bag and adding it to the others. "Only seven bucks," I added, but he was already walking away, so sure of himself. "It was on clearance, for God's sake." "Love me," he called out over his shoulder, in a singsong voice. "You. Love. Me.
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
What to wear? I could think of no guidelines on what we were wearing this season to a party forced on you to celebrate an unwanted engagement that might turn into a violent confrontation with a vengeful maniac. Clearly brown shoes were out, but beyond that nothing really seemed de rigueur.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
β€œ
He loved her, and he would love her until the day he was too old for loving--but he could not have her. So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.
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”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Winter Dreams)
β€œ
...my conscience has the same hard reality as a unicorn.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dexter Is Delicious (Dexter, #5))
β€œ
It was almost enough to make me feel emotion.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
In its own way the kiss had been an act of murder.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Since I am not actually a real human being, my emotional responses are generally limited to what I have learned to fake.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
β€œ
But what could I do? Be stupid for a while? I wasn't sure I knew how, even after so many years of careful observation.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
Another dream. Another long-distance call on my phantom party line. No wonder i had steadfastly refused to have dreams for most of my life. So stupid; such pointless, obvious symbols. Totally uncontrollable anxiety soup, hateful, blatant nonsense.
”
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
But somewhere, a child surprises himself with his endurance, his quick mind, his dexterous hands. Somewhere a child accomplishes with ease that which usually takes great effort. And this child, who has been blind to his past, but his heart still beats for the thrill of the race, this child's soul awakens. And a new champion walks among us.
”
”
Garth Stein (The Art of Racing in the Rain)
β€œ
I nodded with genuine synthetic sympathy.
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Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
I had killed our careful relationship by driving my tongue through its heart and pushing it off a cliff.
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”
Jeff Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1))
β€œ
I always drink at lunchtime. It helps my imagination.
”
”
Colin Dexter (The Dead of Jericho (Inspector Morse, #5))
β€œ
And don't get hurt,' [Dexter] added. 'There's no one to help you up there. And don't go stirring up a lot of trouble for us. This case isn't ripe yet. Until it is, our policy with Mr Big is 'live and let live'.' Bond looked quizzically at Captain Dexter In my job,' he said, 'when I come up against a man like this one, I have another motto. It's 'live and let die'.
”
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Ian Fleming (Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2))
β€œ
Of course, having information to use is one thing. Knowing what it means and how to use it is a different story.
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Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
β€œ
Sylvie's sort of pregnant. Well not sort of. She is. Pregnant. Actually pregnant with a baby.' 'Oh Dexter! Do you know the father? I'm kidding! Congratulations, Dex. God, aren't you meant to space your bombshells out a bit. Not just drop them all at once?' She held his face in both hands, looked at it. 'You're getting married?-' 'Yes' -'And you're going to be a father?' 'I know! Fuck me a father!' 'Is that allowed? I mean will they let you?' 'Apparently' 'I think it's wonderful. Fucking hell, Dexter, I turn my back for one minute...!' She hugged him once again her arms high round his neck. She felt drunk, full of affection and a certain sadness too, as if something was coming to an end. She wanted to say something along these lines, but thought it best to do this through a joke. 'Of course you've destroyed any chance I had of future happiness, but I'm delighted for you, really.
”
”
David Nicholls (One Day)
β€œ
Women are raised to work with dexterity, to keep their nimble fingers ready, their minds alert. It is her job to know how to handle the stream of bombs, how to kindly decline giving her number, how to move her hand from the button of her jeans, to turn down a drink. When a woman is assaulted, one of the first questions people ask is, β€˜did you say no?’ This question assumes that the answer was always yes, and that it is her job to revoke the agreement. To defuse the bomb she was given. But why are they allowed to touch us until we physically fight them off? Why is the door open until we have to slam it shut?
”
”
Chanel Miller (Know My Name)
β€œ
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet, within a month-- Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!-- A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she-- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month: Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good: But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
”
”
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
β€œ
The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way--a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word 'beat' spoken on streetcorners on Times Square and in the Village, in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America--beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction--We'd even heard old 1910 Daddy Hipsters of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer--It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization--the subterraneans heroes who'd finally turned from the 'freedom' machine of the West and were taking drugs, digging bop, having flashes of insight, experiencing the 'derangement of the senses,' talking strange, being poor and glad, prophesying a new style for American culture, a new style (we thought), a new incantation--The same thing was almost going on in the postwar France of Sartre and Genet and what's more we knew about it--But as to the actual existence of a Beat Generation, chances are it was really just an idea in our minds--We'd stay up 24 hours drinking cup after cup of black coffee, playing record after record of Wardell Gray, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Willie Jackson, Lennie Tristano and all the rest, talking madly about that holy new feeling out there in the streets- -We'd write stories about some strange beatific Negro hepcat saint with goatee hitchhiking across Iowa with taped up horn bringing the secret message of blowing to other coasts, other cities, like a veritable Walter the Penniless leading an invisible First Crusade- -We had our mystic heroes and wrote, nay sung novels about them, erected long poems celebrating the new 'angels' of the American underground--In actuality there was only a handful of real hip swinging cats and what there was vanished mightily swiftly during the Korean War when (and after) a sinister new kind of efficiency appeared in America, maybe it was the result of the universalization of Television and nothing else (the Polite Total Police Control of Dragnet's 'peace' officers) but the beat characters after 1950 vanished into jails and madhouses, or were shamed into silent conformity, the generation itself was shortlived and small in number.
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Jack Kerouac
β€œ
So they were pen pals now, Emma composing long, intense letters crammed with jokes and underlining, forced banter and barely concealed longing; two-thousand-word acts of love on air-mail paper. Letters, like compilation tapes, were really vehicles for unexpressed emotions and she was clearly putting far too much time and energy into them. In return, Dexter sent her postcards with insufficient postage: β€˜Amsterdam is MAD’, β€˜Barcelona INSANE’, β€˜Dublin ROCKS. Sick as DOG this morning.’ As a travel writer, he was no Bruce Chatwin, but still she would slip the postcards in the pocket of a heavy coat on long soulful walks on Ilkley Moor, searching for some hidden meaning in β€˜VENICE COMPLETELY FLOODED!!!!
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David Nicholls
β€œ
It is usually imagined that a thief, a murderer, a spy, a prostitute, acknowledging his profession as evil, is ashamed of it. But the contrary is true. People whom fate and their sin-mistakes have placed in a certain position, however false that position may be, form a view of life in general which makes their position seem good and admissible. In order to keep up their view of life, these people instinctively keep to the circle of those people who share their views of life and their own place in it. This surprises us, where the persons concerned are thieves, bragging about their dexterity, prostitutes vaunting their depravity, or murderers boasting of their cruelty. This surprises us only because the circle, the atmosphere in which these people live, is limited, and we are outside it. But can we not observe the same phenomenon which the rich boast of their wealth, i.e., robbery; the commanders in the army pride themselves on their victories, i.e., murder; and those in high places vaunt their power, i.e., violence? We do not see the perversion in the views of life held by these people, only because the circle formed by them is more extensive, and we ourselves are moving inside of it.
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Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection)
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What the hell," I said, pushing off the wall, ready to take off the head of whatever stupid salesperson had decided to get cozy with me. My elbow was still buzzing, and I could feel a hot flush creeping up my neck: bad signs. I knew my temper. I turned my head and saw it wasn't a salesman at all. It was a guy with black curly hair, around my age, wearing a bright orange T-shirt. And for some reason he was smiling. "Hey there," he said cheerfully. "How's it going?" "What is your problem?" I snapped, rubbing my elbow. "Problem?" "You just slammed me into the wall, asshole." He blinked. "Goodness," he said finally. "Such language." I just looked at him. Wrong day, buddy, I thought. You caught me on the wrong day. "The thing is," he said, as if we'd been discussing the weather or world politics, "I saw you out in the showroom. I was over by the tire display?" I was sure I was glaring at him. But he kept talking. "I just thought to myself, all of a sudden, that we had something in common. A natural chemistry, if you will. And I had a feeling that something big was going to happen. To both of us. That we were, in fact, meant to be together." "You got all this," I said, clarifying, "at the tire display?" "You didn't feel it?" he asked. "No. I did, however, feel you slamming me into the wall," I said evenly. "That," he said, lowering his voice and leaning closer to me, "was an accident. An oversight. Just an unfortunate result of the enthusiasm I felt knowing I was about to talk to you.
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Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β€œ
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go... Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You'll be as famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV. Except when they don't Because, sometimes they won't. I'm afraid that some times you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you. All Alone! Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you'll be quite a lot. And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won't want to go on... You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. Just never foget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.) KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS! So... be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, You're off the Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!
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Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You’ll Go!)