“
Impossible is my specialty.
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Heartless)
“
For the murder of Jest, the court joker of Hearts, I sentence this man to death.’
She spoke without feeling, unburdened by love or dreams or the pain of a broken heart. It was a new day in Hearts, and she was the Queen.
‘Off with his head
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Heartless)
“
True love is finding someone whose demons play well with yours" - The Joker
”
”
The Joker Batman Arkham City
“
Moomah," Travis mumbled and Joker looked to the kid to see his eyes on the magazine, his fingers twiddling his lip.
"Yeah, son, that's your momma."
Travis looked to him. "Moomah."
"Yeah, boy."
Travis took his fingers from his lip and curled them around Joker's. "Joejoekah."
"Yeah," Joker whispered. "I'm your Joker."
The boy wobbled a second then dropped forward and landed a sloppy, open-mouthed kiss on his hand and Joker's mouth.
He wobbled back.
"Love you too, kid," Joker whispered.
Travis giggled.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Ride Steady (Chaos, #3))
“
For a moment she turned in a circle, staring at her hands, which she held high and useless, close to her breast. She bobbed and shambled like an ape doing a trick, and her face was the silly, bewildered face of a joker's victim. And yet she could make no move that was not beautiful. Her trapped terror was more lovely than any joy that Molly had ever seen, and that was the most terrible thing about it.
”
”
Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1))
“
And that was it. He needed me. This scarred, broken man needed me... And I wanted to be there for him.
I wanted to smile for him...
I needed to.
”
”
Stjepan Šejić (Harleen)
“
I fell, she laughed. I fell hard, she laughed harder. Seeing that I kept falling till I fell in love.
”
”
Faraaz Kazi
“
Tack’s voice was granite when he started, “They will not take her boy, and the time to fuck with Carissa Teodoro is now over.”
Joker’s voice was a quiet growl when he started, “You know you got my love, brother.”
“I do,” Tack returned. “And it’s a privilege, Carson.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Ride Steady (Chaos, #3))
“
I don't wanna be the joker who makes eyes full of tears in the end
”
”
Ags Orachimaruu
“
The truth is, Colonel, that there's no divine spark, bless you. There's many a man alive no more value than a dead dog. Believe me, when you've seen them hang each other...Equality? Christ in Heaven. What I'm fighting for is the right to prove I'm a better man than many. Where have you seen this divine spark in operation, Colonel? Where have you noted this magnificent equality? The Great White Joker in the Sky dooms us all to stupidity or poverty from birth. no two things on earth are equal or have an equal chance, not a leaf nor a tree. There's many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don't think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice. 'Tis why I'm here. I'll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved. I'm Kilrain, and I God damn all gentlemen. I don't know who me father was and I don't give a damn. There's only one aristocracy, and that's right here - " he tapped his white skull with a thick finger - "and YOU, Colonel laddie, are a member of it and don't even know it. You are damned good at everything I've seen you do, a lovely soldier, an honest man, and you got a good heart on you too, which is rare in clever men. Strange thing. I'm not a clever man meself, but I know it when I run across it. The strange and marvelous thing about you, Colonel darlin', is that you believe in mankind, even preachers, whereas when you've got my great experience of the world you will have learned that good men are rare, much rarer than you think.
”
”
Michael Shaara (The Killer Angels (The Civil War Trilogy, #2))
“
The clown figure has had so many meanings in different times and cultures. The jolly, well-loved joker familiar to most people is actually but one aspect of this protean creature. Madmen, hunchbacks, amputees, and other abnormals were once considered natural clowns; they were elected to fulfill a comic role which could allow others to see them as ludicrous rather than as terrible reminders of the forces of disorder in the world. But sometimes a cheerless jester was required to draw attention to this same disorder, as in the case of King Lear's morbid and honest fool, who of course was eventually hanged, and so much for his clownish wisdom. Clowns have often had ambiguous and sometimes contradictory roles to play. ("The Last Feast Of The Harlequin")
”
”
Thomas Ligotti (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now)
“
Dr. Quinn..
No joke. I'd love to see you smile one day.
”
”
Stjepan Šejić (Harleen)
“
When I fuck, I like to fuck with a raw ferocity most women can’t handle. I don’t make love. I want you up against a wall, my hands tangled in your hair while my cock is driving in and out of you. My hands won’t be gentle; my cock won’t be gentle; and baby,” he growls, “I won’t be fuckin’ gentle.
”
”
Bella Jewel (Precarious (Jokers' Wrath MC, #1))
“
It had been more than a year since the Joker’s conquest of America and we were all still in shock and going through the stages of grief but now we needed to come together and set love and beauty and solidarity and friendship against the monstrous forces that faced us. Humanity was the only answer to the cartoon. I had no plan except love. I hoped another plan might emerge in time but for now there was only holding each other tightly and passing strength to each other, body to body, mouth to mouth, spirit to spirit, me to you.
”
”
Salman Rushdie (The Golden House)
“
I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I get my loving on the run
”
”
Steve Miller Band
“
Thinking and talking about love leads to Love, which is the enemy. Do not consort with the enemy. Even if those hot-ass actors in the movies make it look cuddly and nice and tempting, don’t fall for it. It’s the biggest bad in the world, the worst villain ever created by hormone-pumped pubescent morons. It’s the Joker, Lex Luthor, that one overweight guy who’s always messing with the Scooby-Doo gang. It’s the final boss in the massive joke of a video game you call your life.
”
”
Sara Wolf (Lovely Vicious (Lovely Vicious, #1))
“
Rhett, do you really--is it to protect me that you--"
"Yes, my dear, it is my much advertised chivalry that makes me protect you." The mocking light began to dance in his black eyes and all signs of earnestness fled from his face. "And why? Because of my deep love for you, Mrs. Kennedy. Yes, I have silently hungered and thirsted for you and worshipped you from afar; but being an honorable man, like Mr. Ashley Wilkes, I have concealed it from you. You are, alas, Frank's wife and honor has forbidden my telling this to you. But even as Mr. Wilkes' honor cracks occasionally, so mine is cracking now and I reveal my secret passion and my--"
"Oh, for God's sake, hush!" interrupted Scarlett, annoyed as usual when he made her look like a conceited fool, and not caring to have Ashley and his honor become the subject of further conversation. "What was the other thing you wanted to tell me?"
"What! You change the subject when I am baring a loving but lacerated heart?
”
”
Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind)
“
For the murder of jest, the court joker of Hearts, I sentence this man to death.'
She spoke without feeling, unburdened by love or dreams or the pain of a broken heart. it was a new day in Hearts, and she was the Queen.
'Off with his head
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Heartless)
“
Joker’s voice was a quiet growl when he stated, “You know you got my love, brother.” “I do,” Tack returned. “And it’s a privilege, Carson.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Ride Steady (Chaos, #3))
“
Life is just like the game of poker, you never know what cards you will get. Sitting against the people, you can either win with the king or live on a joker. Many times in life you are forced to play the blind bet, and achieve overwhelming success, with loads of cash in your pocket or you may reach disastrous conclusions, losing everything you have got.
That’s the reason I love playing poker.
”
”
Prerna Varma (The Dumb and the Dumbfounded)
“
but you can’t spend the rest of your life worrying that someone is going to get mad if you express yourself. If they love you, they’ll understand that you have emotion, same as the rest of the world.
”
”
Bella Jewel (Jokers' Wrath Motorcycle Club: Boxed Set (Jokers' Wrath MC, #1-4))
“
You can only pretend that you're already dead and thus free yourself up to focus on three things: 1) finding and killing the enemy, 2) communicating the situation and resulting actions to adjacent units and higher headquarters, and 3) triaging and treating your wounded. If you love your men, you naturally think about number three first, but if you do you're wrong. The grim logic of combat dictates that numbers one and two take precedence.
”
”
Donovan Campbell (Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood)
“
Man's inhumanity to man will continue as long as man loves God more than he loves his fellow man. The love of God means wasted love. 'For God and Country' means a divided allegiance—a 50 per cent patriot.
The most abused word in the language of man is the word 'God.' The reason for this is that it is subject to so much abuse. There is no other word in the human language that is as meaningless and incapable of explanation as is the word 'God.' It is the beginning and end of nothing. It is the Alpha and Omega of Ignorance.
It has as many meanings as there are minds. And as each person has an opinion of what the word God ought to mean, it is a word without premise, without foundation, and without substance. It is without validity. It is all things to all people, and is as meaningless as it is indefinable. It is the most dangerous in the hands of the unscrupulous, and is the joker that trumps the ace. It is the poisoned word that has paralyzed the brain of man.
'The fear of the Lord' is not the beginning of wisdom; on the contrary, it has made man a groveling slave; it has made raving lunatics of those who have attempted to interpret what God 'is' and what is supposed to be our 'duty' to God. It has made man prostitute the most precious things of life—it has made him sacrifice wife, and child, and home.
'In the name of God' means in the name of nothing—it has caused man to be a wastrel with the precious elixir of life, because there is no God.
”
”
Joseph Lewis (An Atheist Manifesto)
“
With fame, money and sex settled, he had to find something else to fight, and like any honorable man he chose to fight his own people. And that was how Byron the sentimental poet of graveyards and lost loves became the Satanic joker all England loved to hate.
”
”
John Dolan
“
For the murder of Jest, the court joker of Hearts. I sentence this man to death." She spoke without feeling, unburdened by love or dreams or the pain of a broken heart. It was a new day in Hearts, and she was the Queen. "Off with his head.
"Murderer, martyr, monarch, mad. Don't you remember? I know you remember. "
"You are a fool."
"Good. I've become rather fond of fools."
"A Joker. A Rook. A mystery."
"You've been trying to steal my heart."
"The easiest way to steal something," Jest murmured, "is for it to be given willingly.
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Heartless)
“
Why we write.
Because art blows life into the lifeless, death into the deathless. Because art's lie is preferable, in truth, to life's beautiful terror. Because as time does not pass (nothing, as Beckett tells us, passes) it passes the time. Because Death, our mirthless master, is somehow amused by epitaphs. Because epitaphs well struck give Death, our vorcious master, heartburn. Because fiction imitates life's beauty, thereby inventing the beauty life lacks. Because fiction is the best position, at once exotic and familiar, for fucking the world. Because fiction, mediating paradox, celebrates it. Because fiction, mothered by love, loves love as a mother might her unloving child. Because fiction speaks, hopelessly, beautifully, as the world speaks. Because God, created in the storyteller's image, can be destroyed only by its maker. Because in its perversity, art harmonizes the disharmonious, and because in its profanity, fiction sanctifies life. Because, in its terrible isolation, writing is a path to brotherhood. Because in the beginning was the gesture and in the end the come, as well in between what we have are words. Because of all arts, only fiction can unmake the myths that unman men. Because of its endearing futility, its outrageous pretentions. Because the pen, though short, casts a long shadow upon (it must be said) no surface. Because the world is reinvented every day and this is how it is done. Because there is nothing new under the sun except its expression. Because truth, that illusive joker, hides himself in fictions and must therefore be sought there. Because writing, in all spaces unimaginable vastness, is still the greatest adventure of all. And because, alas, what else?
”
”
Robert Coover
“
Sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love.”
~ Gabriel Garcia
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
You keep us alive because you love us baddies more then you love them
”
”
Scott Snyder
“
I had to admit that I had a strong tendency to date jokers. I couldn’t say no to them. I would sit across from someone I was dating and try to imagine who in the entire world would date this nimrod other than me. But I always had to have a boyfriend. They distracted me from being sad. They baffled me with their stupidity. I refused to believe that finding love was difficult.
”
”
Heather O'Neill (The Girl Who Was Saturday Night)
“
Miss Destiny said, “there is a God, and He is one hell of a joker. Just—look—” and she indicates her lovely green satin dress and then waves her hand over the entire room. “Trapped! . . . But one day, in the most lavish drag youve evuh seen—heels! and gown! and beads! and spangled earrings!—Im going to storm heaven and protest! Here I am!!!!! I’ll yell—and I’ll shake my beads at Him. . . . And God will cringe!
”
”
John Rechy (City of Night)
“
Mira Levenson. Aged twelve. Looks, long dark shiny hair, dark brown eyes (almost black), brown skin. Beautiful. Favorite colour, copper orange, I think. Personality, clever, bright, serious, shy, funny without realizing it, holds back her thoughts, mystery girl, arty. What I've noticed: she's stronger than she thinks she is; she doesn't speak much ay school. What I know: she's got a loud laugh (when she lets it out). Her best friend is Millie Lockhart. She doesn't need Millie as much as she thinks she does. Her grandmother is dying and she loves her. She started talking in Pat Print's class. I know she doesn't know how much I think of her, how much I miss her if she's not around. What I think she thinks about me is that I'm a bit of a joker, but I'm deadly serious.
Deer...apple...green...sea...
See you on Friday!
Love
Jidé
”
”
Sita Brahmachari (Artichoke Hearts)
“
The carioca is a role model and the ideal state of being is his. What is a carioca?. Simply put, he's a lovable scamp, a guy who somehow finds a way, always, to avoid legitimate toil in favor of the popular Rio diversions of going to the beach, flirting, making love, dancing, and hanging out. He is a man who survives on charm and what are called jetinhos, improvisational, amiable hustler/joker strategies to avoid work and keep doing what he's doing, which is basically nothing.
”
”
Anthony Bourdain (The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones)
“
Being the only female in what was basically a boys’ club must have been difficult for her. Miraculously, she didn’t compensate by becoming hard or quarrelsome. She was still a girl, a slight lovely girl who lay in bed and ate chocolates, a girl whose hair smelled like hyacinth and whose scarves fluttered jauntily in the breeze. But strange and marvelous as she was, a wisp of silk in a forest of black wool, she was not the fragile creature one would have her seem. In many ways, she was as cruel and competent as Henry. Tough minded, solitary in her habits. She was the Queen, who finished off the suit of Dark Drax, Dark King and Joker.
”
”
Donna Tartt (The Secret History)
“
When she walked by the two officers, they didn't recognize her.
"Have you seen the luscious bonbon with the golden braids?"
She grinned up at them with such impish mischief that they almost forgot their quest for the singer. "She is with her lover," Hannah said. "But she can always handle one or two more." She winked at them. "Go there, through that door."
She made her escape while the uniformed hobbledehoys gawked and gaped and finally burst into the dressing room where Franz, the three-hundred-pound juggling strongman, was adjusting his loincloth.
"I ought not do it," Hannah said aloud to herself as chaos erupted behind her. "I just can't seem to help myself. it is a shame, really.
”
”
Laura L. Sullivan (Love by the Morning Star)
“
I love you, Kayla Martin. I want to spend the rest of my life wondering what will happen when I turn on the microwave. I want to explain the X-files to you in bed every night and replace cabinet doors that are dented from your feet.....I want to go to sleep at night knowing that you're puttering around in the other room inventing something that will baffle and confuse me.
”
”
Lena Matthews (Call Me (Joker's Wild, #1))
“
David Abrams’s Fobbit, Giorgio Agamben’s The Open, Omnia Amin and Rick London’s translations of Ahmed Abdel Muti Hijazi’s poetry, Peter Van Buren’s We Meant Well, Donovan Campbell’s Joker One, C. J. Chivers’s The Gun, Seth Connor’s Boredom by Day, Death by Night, Daniel Danelo’s Blood Stripes, Kimberly Dozier’s Breathing the Fire, Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Siobhan Fallon’s You Know When the Men Are Gone, Nathaniel Fick’s One Bullet Away, Dexter Filkins’s The Forever War, David Finkel’s The Good Soldiers, Jim Frederick’s Black Hearts, Matt Gallagher’s Kaboom, Jessica Goodell’s Shade It Black, J. Glenn Gray’s The Warriors, Dave Grossman’s On Killing and On Combat, Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery, Kirsten Holmstedt’s Band of Sisters, Karl Marlantes’s Matterhorn, Colum McCann’s Dancer, Patrick McGrath’s Trauma, Jonathan Shay’s Odysseus in America and Achilles in Vietnam, Roy Scranton’s essays and fiction, the Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction Report Hard Lessons, Bing West’s The Strongest Tribe and No True Glory, Kayla Williams’s Love My Rifle More Than You.
”
”
Phil Klay (Redeployment)
“
We all have that one girl. We can have a handful of relationships, and they might be good, we might even fall in love with those people, but there is always going to be that one girl. The thing is, you don’t know it until you meet her, but when you do, it is like nothing else could ever compare. She has the power to change everything. She makes you a better person. She brings out the good in you. She knocks back all the bad. You honestly don’t know yourself when you’re with her. But you just know, she’s the one to bring out the absolute best in you. It's a connection unlike anything you've ever felt, almost like you've known her forever. It's more real than anything you've ever experienced. You don't feel a single bad vibe. And for the first time, you honestly wonder how you ever managed before you met her.
”
”
Bella Jewel (Valiant (Jokers' Wrath MC, #6))
“
You want to leave the moat, to go back to the room; you’re already turning and trying to find the door, covered with fake leather, in the steep wall of the moat, but the master succeeds in grabbing your hand and, looking straight in your eyes, says: Your assignment: describe the jaw of a crocodile, the tongue of a hummingbird, the steeple of the New Maiden Convent, a shoot of bird cherry, the bend of the Lethe, the tail of any village dog, a night of love, mirages over hot asphalt, the bright midday in Berezov, the face of a flibbertigibbet, the garden of hell, compare the termite colony to the forest anthill, the sad fate of leaves to the serenade of a Venetian gondolier, and transform a cicada into a butterfly, turn rain into hail, day into night, give us today our daily bread, make a sibilant out of a vowel, prevent the crash of the train whose engineer is asleep, repeat the thirteenth labor of Hercules, give a smoke to a passerby, explain youth and old age, sing a song about a bluebird bringing water in the morn, turn your face to the north, to the Novgorodian barbicans, and then describe how the doorman knows it is snowing outside, if he sits in the foyer all day, talks to the elevator operator, and does not look out the window because there is no window; yes, tell how exactly, and in addition, plant in your orchard a white rose of the winds, show it to the teacher Pavel and, if he likes it, give the white rose to the teacher Pavel, pin the flower to his cowboy shirt or to his dacha hat, bring joy to the man who departed to nowhere, make your old pedagogue—a joker, a clown, and a wind-chaser—happy.
”
”
Sasha Sokolov (A School for Fools)
“
He grabbed her by the shoulders and stared into her soul with his madly hypnotic eyes, the same color as his chemical birthplace. “Would you die for me?” he asked. Quinzel nodded with certainty. “Yes.” “No. That’s too easy.” He leaned in closer, his eyes drawing her in. “Would you live for me?” He then smiled The Smile, and it scared the hell out of her. Quinzel trembled. There was a power about him she could not deny, and she wanted that power to ravage her. He was a lion about to swallow a mouse, and she could hardly wait another instant to be devoured. But he wouldn’t let her go. Not now. Not yet. “Will you embrace me and only me?” he demanded. She nodded vigorously. Of course. There’ll never be anyone else. “Will you bind your spirit to mine, in hate?” If not you, who else? Bind me. Bind me any way you want. “Do you consign your soul to me?” Duh. What do you think I’ve been trying to do? C’mon. Let’s do this already. “Do you laugh at the world in disgust?” Always have. Always will. ’Specially if we can laugh at it together. All she said to him was, “Yes.” Joker backed away. He stared at her, studied her. He was the doctor now, and she the patient, but he still needed to make sure. “Do not say this oath thoughtlessly,” he said, his expression serious. “Desire becomes surrender. Surrender becomes power. Do you want it? Do you really want it?” She looked at him with undying love in her eyes. “I do,” she joyously said. “I do.” “Then goodbye, Dr. Quinzel.” He
”
”
Marv Wolfman (Suicide Squad: The Official Movie Novelization)
“
She was familiar with a certain type of American crazy. Gun crazy was normal to her, shooting-kids-at-school or putting-on-a-Joker-mask-and-mowing-people-down-in-a-mall or just plain murdering-your-mom-at-breakfast crazy, Second Amendment crazy, that was just the everyday crazy that kept going down and there was nothing you could do about it if you loved freedom; and she understood knife crazy from her younger days in the Bronx, and the knockout-game type of crazy that persuaded young black kids it was cool to punch Jews in the face. She could comprehend drug crazy and politician crazy and Westboro Baptist Church crazy and Trump crazy because those things, they were the American way, but this new crazy was different. It felt 9/11 crazy: foreign, evil.
”
”
Salman Rushdie (Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights)
“
The 8 Play Personalities The Collector loves to gather and organise, enjoying activities like searching for rare plants, or rummaging around in archives or garage sales. The Competitor enjoys games and sports, and takes pleasure in trying their best and winning. The Explorer likes to wander, discovering new places and things they’ve never seen, through hiking, road tripping and other adventures. The Creator finds joy in making things, and can spend hours every day drawing, painting, making music, gardening and more. The Storyteller has an active imagination and uses their imagination to entertain others. They’re drawn to activities like writing, dance, theatre and role-playing games. The Joker endeavours to make people laugh, and may play by performing stand-up, doing improv, or just pulling a lot of pranks to make you smile. The Director likes to plan, organise and lead others, and can fit into many different roles and activities, from directing stage performances to running a company, to working in political or social advocacy. The Kinesthete finds play in physical activities like acrobatics, gymnastics and free running.
”
”
Ali Abdaal (Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You)
“
What a shocking bad hat!' was the phrase that was next in vogue. No sooner had it become universal, than thousands of idle but sharp eyes were on the watch for the passenger whose hat shewed any signs, however slight, of ancient service. Immediately the cry arose, and, like the war-whoop of the Indians, was repeated by a hundred discordant throats. He was a wise man who, finding himself under these circumstances 'the observed of all observers,' bore his honours meekly. He who shewed symptoms of ill-feeling at the imputations cast upon his hat, only brought upon himself redoubled notice. The mob soon perceive whether a man is irritable, and, if of their own class, they love to make sport of him. When such a man, and with such a hat, passed in those days through a crowded neighbourhood, he might think himself fortunate if his annoyances were confined to the shouts and cries of the populace. The obnoxious hat was often snatched from his head and thrown into the gutter by some practical joker, and then raised, covered with mud, upon the end of a stick, for the admiration of the spectators, who held their sides with laughter, and exclaimed, in the pauses of their mirth, 'Oh, what a shocking bad hat!' 'What a shocking bad hat!' Many a nervous poor man, whose purse could but ill spare the outlay, doubtless purchased a new hat before the time, in order to avoid exposure in this manner.
”
”
Charles Mackay (Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds, Volume 1)
“
They stood on tiptoe, strained their eyes. “Let me look.” “Well, look then.” “What you see?” That was the question. No one saw anything. Then, simultaneously, three distinct groups of marchers came into view. One came up 125th Street from the east, on the north side of the street, marching west towards the Block. It was led by a vehicle the likes of which many had never seen, and as muddy as though it had come out of East River. A bare-legged black youth hugged the steering-wheel. They could see plainly that he was bare-legged for the vehicle didn’t have any door. He, in turn, was being hugged by a bare-legged white youth sitting at his side. It was a brotherly hug, but coming from a white youth it looked suggestive. Whereas the black had looked plain bare-legged, the bare-legged white youth looked stark naked. Such is the way those two colors affect the eyes of the citizens of Harlem. In the South it’s just the opposite. Behind these brotherly youths sat a very handsome young man of sepia color with the strained expression of a man moving his bowels. With him sat a middle-aged white woman in a teen-age dress who looked similarly engaged, with the exception that she had constipation. They held a large banner upright between them which read: BROTHERHOOD! Brotherly Love Is The Greatest! Following in the wake of the vehicle were twelve rows of bare-limbed marchers, four in each row, two white and two black, in orderly procession, each row with its own banner identical to the one in the vehicle. Somehow the black youths looked unbelievably black and the white youths unnecessarily white. These were followed by a laughing, dancing, hugging, kissing horde of blacks and whites of all ages and sexes, most of whom had been strangers to each other a half-hour previous. They looked like a segregationist nightmare. Strangely enough, the black citizens of Harlem were scandalized. “It’s an orgy!” someone cried. Not to be outdone, another joker shouted, “Mama don’t ’low that stuff in here.” A dignified colored lady sniffed. “White trash.” Her equally dignified mate suppressed a grin. “What else, with all them black dustpans?” But no one showed any animosity. Nor was anyone surprised. It was a holiday. Everyone was ready for anything. But when attention was diverted to the marchers from the south, many eyes seemed to pop out in black faces. The marchers from the south were coming north on the east side of Seventh Avenue, passing in front of the Scheherazade bar restaurant and the interdenominational church with the coming text posted on the notice-board outside: SINNERS ARE SUCKERS! DON’T BE A SQUARE! What caused the eyes of these dazed citizens to goggle was the sight of the apparition out front. Propped erect on the front bumper of a gold-trimmed lavender-colored Cadillac convertible driven by a fat black man with a harelip, dressed in a metallic-blue suit, was the statue of the Black Jesus, dripping black blood from its outstretched hands, a white rope dangling from its broken neck, its teeth bared in a look of such rage and horror as to curdle even blood mixed with as much alcohol as was theirs. Its crossed black feet were nailed to a banner which read: THEY LYNCHED ME! While two men standing in the back of the convertible held aloft another banner reading: BE NOT AFRAID!
”
”
Chester Himes (Blind Man with a Pistol (Harlem Cycle, #8))
“
Not long after I learned about Frozen, I went to see a friend of mine who works in the music industry. We sat in his living room on the Upper East Side, facing each other in easy chairs, as he worked his way through a mountain of CDs. He played “Angel,” by the reggae singer Shaggy, and then “The Joker,” by the Steve Miller Band, and told me to listen very carefully to the similarity in bass lines. He played Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and then Muddy Waters’s “You Need Love,” to show the extent to which Led Zeppelin had mined the blues for inspiration. He played “Twice My Age,” by Shabba Ranks and Krystal, and then the saccharine ’70s pop standard “Seasons in the Sun,” until I could hear the echoes of the second song in the first. He played “Last Christmas,” by Wham! followed by Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” to explain why Manilow might have been startled when he first heard that song, and then “Joanna,” by Kool and the Gang, because, in a different way, “Last Christmas” was an homage to Kool and the Gang as well. “That sound you hear in Nirvana,” my friend said at one point, “that soft and then loud kind of exploding thing, a lot of that was inspired by the Pixies. Yet Kurt Cobain” — Nirvana’s lead singer and songwriter — “was such a genius that he managed to make it his own. And ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’?” — here he was referring to perhaps the best-known Nirvana song. “That’s Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling.’ ” He began to hum the riff of the Boston hit, and said, “The first time I heard ‘Teen Spirit,’ I said, ‘That guitar lick is from “More Than a Feeling.” ’ But it was different — it was urgent and brilliant and new.” He played another CD. It was Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” a huge hit from the 1970s. The chorus has a distinctive, catchy hook — the kind of tune that millions of Americans probably hummed in the shower the year it came out. Then he put on “Taj Mahal,” by the Brazilian artist Jorge Ben Jor, which was recorded several years before the Rod Stewart song. In his twenties, my friend was a DJ at various downtown clubs, and at some point he’d become interested in world music. “I caught it back then,” he said. A small, sly smile spread across his face. The opening bars of “Taj Mahal” were very South American, a world away from what we had just listened to. And then I heard it. It was so obvious and unambiguous that I laughed out loud; virtually note for note, it was the hook from “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” It was possible that Rod Stewart had independently come up with that riff, because resemblance is not proof of influence. It was also possible that he’d been in Brazil, listened to some local music, and liked what he heard.
”
”
Malcolm Gladwell (What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures)
“
True love is finding your soulmate in your best friend” ~ Faye Hall
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.” ~ Rob Liano
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
You decide who you are. You can have something horrible happen to you and become Batman, or you can become the Joker. You can get swept up in horrible circumstances and bad choices, but you don’t need to. You can exert force on your own life. You can steer your own path. I did try to follow that, even in those special difficult times known as primary and secondary school. No matter what peers or adults were putting me through, I didn’t need to let it make me a certain way. I didn’t have to become mean, or bitter or angry. I employed
”
”
Lynne M. Thomas (Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them)
“
He’s a practical joker. He just can’t help it. He’ll put prudish guys on mailing lists for girlie magazines. Or right wingers for liberal causes. He thinks it’s a hoot. A guy in his office was climbing too fast, using everybody around him, so my husband and his pals made up letterhead stationary and sent him notification that he’d won a national award for professional achievement from some fake organization. They all congratulated him and made a big deal out of it—and even the guy’s secretary believed it and made reservations for him to go to Dallas to accept it.”
—Ellen, Cleveland, OH
”
”
Merry Bloch Jones (I Love Him, But . . .)
“
- Question. Would you die for me?
- Yes.
- That's too easy. Will you... Would you live for me? ... Hmm?
- Yes.
- Careful! Do not say this oath thoughtlessly! ... Desire becomes surrender, surrender becomes power. You want this?
- I do.
- Say it. Say it. Say it! Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty...
- Please?!
- Mm, God, you're so... good!
―― Joker & Harley Quinn
”
”
Suicide Squad (2016 movie directed by David Ayer)
“
The poeticization of words
I was worried now,
I do not do it anymore, and the silence continues to ravage my soul
I was worried now,
I do not know and the silence of love continues to ravage my soul and my heart
drained of emotions and the lonely road never seems to end
the lightning of love continues to fail
and I stay with a heart full of burning scars
I see them in the crowd the mocking laughter
the bad jokers, the worthless people who are afraid
double-edged friends who stab, and slash
without thinking about the consequences
scars forming in the mind
filled with screaming voices
his stubborn voices will never leave me paralyzer
adding weight to the confusion of insecurity wearing
I was worried now,
I do not do it anymore, and the silence continues to ravage my soul
I was worried now,
I do not know and the silence continues to ravage my soul
the music call me night fall
to deliver me in synchronicity words memorize
restitution of my thinking I do not know to ask me
but why is my heart still so hollow?
and I can not find rest in any place
he told me one day everything will be better
but the weight of emotions enclose me agonize
and I have to stay hidden
because this world is without mercy
I was worried now,
I do not do it anymore, and the silence continues to ravage my soul
I was worried now,
I do not know and the silence of love continues to ravage my soul
and I'm tearing from the inside
my friends do not see it because a wall was built
and the trust beat hospitalizer
never got back from the fight lead lonely
in a slice surround with explosions of bad intent
and radiation of emotions
my last companion
the poeticization of words.
(Marty Bisson Milo)
”
”
Marty Bisson milo
“
people who have hurt me the most. Yet I can’t stop loving them.
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.”
~Brooken Leacock
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
True love is finding your soulmate in your best friend”
~ Faye Hall
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”
~ Oscar Wilde
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.”
~Anatole France
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
When you love someone, truly love them, you lay your heart open to them. You give them a part of yourself that you give to no one else, and you let them inside a part of you that only they can hurt-you literally hand them the razor with a map of where to cut deepest and most painfully on your heart and soul. And when they do strike, it’s crippling-like having your heart carved out.”
~ Sherrilyn Kenyon
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
One way or another we end up alone. The people we love will eventually leave us. whether we push them away or they die, in the end we are left alone. When this happens, death is not so scary.
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.”
~ Rob Liano
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
True success is measured not by what we possess but rather how much we are loved.
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
Young girls are like helpless children in the hands of amorous men, whatever is said to them is true and whatever manipulation on their bodies seems like love to them, sooner or later, they come back to their senses, but the scars are not dead inasmuch as her spoiler lives.”
~Michael Bassey Johnson Cindy Napier’s Diary
”
”
Scott Leopold (The Joker (The Origin Book 1))
“
No old lady called her old man sweetie. Joker fucking loved it from Carrie.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Ride Steady (Chaos, #3))
“
With fame, money and sex settled, he had to find something else to fight, and like any honorable man he chose to fight his own people. And that was how Byron the sentimental poet of graveyards and lost loves became the Satanic joker all England loved to hate.
”
”
John C. Dolan
“
She shuffled us out like two jokers in her cards reminding us to go to Auntie’s house before dark, and telling us again she loved us.
”
”
Tara June Winch (Swallow the Air)
“
Cassie took a chance on this joker here, and if that’s not a gamble, I don’t know what is.” Cassie chuckled while she arranged her cards. “He does have a point.” Jamie slapped Blake’s hand away with a scowl. “You’re just jealous because now I’m the good son in this family.” His gaze shifted to his wife with a dangerous smile. “And any more snide remarks from you, Mrs. MacKenna, and I’ll be showing you ‘trouble’ at home.” Alli bumped shoulders with Cassie. “Not if she hog-ties you with her stinky rope, eh?” Caitlyn
”
”
Julie Lessman (Surprised by Love (The Heart of San Francisco, #3))
“
Scribbled and scratching,
Half finished pages at dawn
People that live here are wondering
Where all their strength's gone.
Moments of splendor
Wind up like ashes in rain,
One look you're smiling,
Another your face is in pain.
I wake up at night
With the sweat on my head.
A look in your eyes
That will haunt me til dead.
I just can't seem to shake it,
Something about what you said:
How love's like an orphan,
A motherless child gone unfed.
So we laugh with the joker
Hold back the tears til they're gone.
Drink and be merry
They'll find us all dead men at dawn.
We're so far away
From wherever we came
That sometimes I wonder
We'll see it again.
It's true what they say...
You can't always go home,
You can't always be warm inside.
That, in love, we're like orphans,
Strangers in paradise.
”
”
Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise, Volume 2: I Dream of You)
“
We can only be a queen if we have found a man worthy to be called a king.... otherwise we got to be keep an ace up our shoulders for these jokers
”
”
Renee' A. Lee
“
We can only be a Queen if we have found a man worthy to be called a King...... otherwise we gotta keep an ace up our shoulder for these jokers.
”
”
Renee' A. Lee
“
are you a Fool for love?
aren't we all Fools for something?
don't you wish we could be Kings and Queens
be the Jack of All, but the Joker to None
reign over foreign territories
of diamonds, clubs, and spades
but forever elusive; the heart
a territory no one can claim
”
”
Jaay Vanmeer (...dark thoughts // they come in the light of day...)
“
If you have a dominant Joker Imposter, you might desperately want to belong but end up sabotaging the very intimacy you crave.
”
”
Lisa Haisha
“
The Joker is a powerful archetype: They are the jester, the dunce, the trickster, and the shape-shifter.
”
”
Lisa Haisha
“
To truly understand a story you need to start from the beginning, but to start from the beginning you have to go back, further than just you. After all, our stories don’t start with us, do they? Our stories start with the person before us, and the person before them. We are created from the stories of those people—from their mistakes, from their achievements, from their love, and their hate. No one’s story is ever truly their own.
”
”
Bella Jewel (Melancholy (Jokers' Wrath MC, #2))
“
There are two people in the kingdom who can interrupt the King: the Queen and the Joker.
”
”
Michael Jagdeo
“
I searched his eyes for the lie, but under the lights in the orchard, I fell. I tumbled into his oblivion, his mass of stars and midnight promises. He was mine in thought, in a place
that didn’t exist, and yet I silently tugged and pulled at that invisible thread tying our hearts together, hoping he’d realize what made him exist ached for me.
”
”
Ashley Munoz (The Joker (Rake Forge University, #3))
“
He was taking too much; did he even know he was claiming pieces of me I had always reserved for him but never in a thousand years thought he’d want?
”
”
Ashley Munoz (The Joker (Rake Forge University, #3))
“
I understood then the pain of loving someone who wouldn’t love you back the same way. It was like extending a lung to them and explaining that you realized it would likely be difficult to breathe or even survive without it…but you’d make do.
”
”
Ashley Munoz (The Joker (Rake Forge University, #3))
“
It probably took Leslie longer to type the @ symbol than it would have to type the word at, but that’s the kind of thing she loves to do.
”
”
Louis Sachar (The Cardturner: A Novel about a King, a Queen, and a Joker)
“
Me: Hеу mom whats up? Mom: Not much ѕwееtіе, rеаdіng a tеxt уоur father sent mе. He ѕаіd: 1 lіkе уоur (оYо). Whаt dоеѕ that mean? Mе: Oh... That wаѕ nice. Hе lіkеѕ уоur еуеѕ.. Tеll hіm u like hіѕ 8==> Thats ѕmіlе bу thе wау. Mоm: Oh оkау ѕwееtіе. Thаnkѕ ѕо much. He's gоіng tо love thе рісturе аnd еvеrуthіng. Mе:I think ѕо tоо.
”
”
BOB JOKER (TEXT FAILS: 4 Books in 1: Epic and super funny Text Fails, Autocorrect Fails Mishaps on Smartphones!)
“
I have seen love stories ending.
I have seen marriages dividing.
Love is not years of togetherness. Love is appreciation. It is not an hard emotion to get into our nerves but we usually have a habit to complain and complicate things.
If he pulls the chair, you serve the food. If he is low, you be a joker. If he shares his day, listen to him patiently. If he forgives you, say sorry. If he gifts you a flower,bloom a garden.
Relationships are delicate like babies. If you poke them, it will leave a scar.
You need to love the love in order to be loved back.
It is an give and take process.
”
”
Randhir Kaur
“
Look, it’s not like I don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with my bro, but—” “Oh ho ho ho! You are quite the joker, Alice. My love for Alexander is pure and innocent. Yes, as one who is known as the Queen of Purity, the love that I have for your brother can only be pure in return. Please do not mistake it for something as vile as obsession. Such terms more aptly describe my brother.” “Well, I can’t deny you on that point.” Jameson de Truante was unpleasant at best, an obsessive-compulsive freak at worst, and a narcissistic loser with an ego the size of Mars. Nobody liked him. Not really anyway. People just treated him nicely because he was rich. “Back to my original topic,” Jasmine started. Alice wanted to facepalm, but that would require effort. “Could we please change the subject? Listening to how my best friend wants to bang my older brother is troublesome.” “W-wha—I do not want to ‘bang’ Alexander! I thought I told you, my love for him is—” “Pure. Yes, yes. I know. Your love is so pure. Is that why you have a naked body pillow of my brother at home?” Jasmine nearly fell out of her seat. Her horrified expression was a sight to behold. “H-how did you know about that?” “I didn’t,” Alice said, feeling a jolt course through her. Knowing that her friend really did have a body pillow with her brother on it creeped her out.
”
”
Brandon Varnell (A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol. 2 (A Most Unlikely Hero, #2))
“
She stayed away from gender politics because, in her own words, she was still “broken” in that area, but worked on new rooms chronicling and displaying the rise of the new “identitarian” far right, the arrival in America of the European ultraist movement whose birthplace was the French youth movement, the Nouvelle Droite Génération Identitaire, and programming events around racial and national identity, a series she called Identity Crisis, dealing in general with racial and religious issues, but focusing, above all, on the schismatic convulsion that had gripped America following the triumph of the cackling cartoon narcissist
America torn in half, its defining myth of city-on-a-hill exceptionalism lying trampled in the gutters of bigotry and racial and male supremacism, Americans’ masks ripped off to reveal the Joker faces beneath. Sixty million. Sixty million. And ninety million more too uncaring to vote.
....
At some later point when we were in bed together I added more prosaic thoughts to the magic of the song. It had been more than a year since the Joker’s conquest of America and we were all still in shock and going through the stages of grief but now we needed to come together and set love and beauty and solidarity and friendship against the monstrous forces that faced us. Humanity was the only answer to the cartoon. I had no plan except love. I hoped another plan might emerge in time but for now there was only holding each other tightly and passing strength to each other, body to body, mouth to mouth, spirit to spirit, me to you.
There was only the holding of hands and slowly learning not to be afraid of the dark.
Shut up, she said, and drew me toward her.
”
”
Salman Rushdie (The Golden House)