“
In the days when hyenas of hate suckle the babes of men, and jackals of hypocrisy pimp their mothers’ broken hearts, may children not look to demons of ignorance for hope.
”
”
Aberjhani (The River of Winged Dreams)
“
Summer has never been the same since the 2000 Presidential Election, when we still seemed to be a prosperous nation at peace with the world, more or less. Two summers later we were a dead-broke nation at war with all but three or four countries in the world, and three of those don't count. Spain and Italy were flummoxed and and England has allowed itself to be taken over by and stigmatized by some corrupt little shyster who enjoys his slimy role as a pimp and a prostitute all at once--selling a once-proud nation of independent-thinking people down the river and into a deadly swamp of slavery to the pimps who love Jesus and George Bush and the war-crazed U.S. Pentagon.
”
”
Hunter S. Thompson (Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness: Modern History from the ESPN.com Sports Desk)
“
I remember you was conflicted
Misusing your influence
Sometimes I did the same
Abusing my power, full of resentment
Resentment that turned into a deep depression
Found myself screaming in the hotel room
I didn’t wanna self destruct
The evils of Lucy was all around me
So I went running for answers
Until I came home
But that didn’t stop survivor’s guilt
Going back and forth trying to convince myself the stripes I earned
Or maybe how A-1 my foundation was
But while my loved ones was fighting the continuous war back in the city, I was entering a new one
A war that was based on apartheid and discrimination
Made me wanna go back to the city and tell the homies what I learned
The word was respect
Just because you wore a different gang color than mine's
Doesn’t mean I can’t respect you as a black man
Forgetting all the pain and hurt we caused each other in these streets
If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us
But I don’t know, I’m no mortal man, maybe I’m just another nigga
”
”
Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
“
The assertion that Americans love violence and bathe in it daily is a self-serving lie promulgated by fundamentalist religious types and America's propaganda-savvy gun-pimps. It's believed by people who don't read novels, play video games, or go to many movies
”
”
Stephen King (Guns)
“
The other night we talked about literature's elimination of the unessential, so that we are given a concentrated "dose" of life. I said, almost indignantly, "That's the danger of it, it prepares you to live, but at the same time, it exposes you to disappointments because it gives a heightened concept of living, it leaves out the dull or stagnant moments. You, in your books, also have a heightened rhythm, and a sequence of events so packed with excitement that i expected all your life to be delirious, intoxicated."
Literature is an exaggeration, a dramatization, and those who are nourished on it (as I was) are in great danger of trying to approximate an impossible rhythm. Trying to live up to dostoevskian scenes every day. And between writers there is a straining after extravagance. We incite each other to jazz-up our rhythm. It is amusing that, when Henry, Fred, and I talked together, we fell back into a deep naturalness. Perhaps none of us is a sensational character. Or perhaps we have no need of condiments. Henry is, in reality, mild not temperamental; gentle not eager for scenes. We may all write about sadism, masochism, the grand quignol, bubu de montparnasse (in which the highest proof of love is for a pimp to embrace his woman's syphilis as fervently as herself, a noblesse-oblige of the apache world), cocteau, drugs, insane asylums, house of the dead, because we love strong colors; and yet when we sit in the cafe de la place clichy, we talk about henry's last pages, and a chapter which was too long, and richard's madness. "One of his greatest worries," said Henry, "was to have introduced us. He thinks you are wonderful and that you may be in danger from the 'gangster author.
”
”
Anaïs Nin
“
People snare when I tell them that I’m an emotional prostitute. But after my rebuttal, they begin to realize that they are one too. Like me, they have pimped their emotions for the affections of another. Like me, they’ve gone through life tormented by the idea of living a happily ever after, not realizing that the ever after isn’t so happy.
”
”
Beatrice McClearn (Diaries of an Emotional Prostitute)
“
i was really into communal living and we were all /
such free spirits, crossing the country we were /
nomads and artists and no one ever stopped / to think about how the one working class housemate / was whoring to support a gang of upper middle class / deadheads with trust fund safety nets and connecticut / childhoods, everyone was too busy processing their isms / to deal with non-issues like class....and it’s just so cool / how none of them have hang-ups about / sex work they’re all real / open-minded real / revolutionary you know / the legal definition of pimp is / one who lives off the earnings of / a prostitute, one or five or / eight and i’d love to stay and / eat some of the stir fry i’ve been cooking / for y’all but i’ve got to go fuck / this guy so we can all get stoned and / go for smoothies tomorrow, save me / some rice, ok?
”
”
Michelle Tea (The Beautiful: Collected Poems)
“
he loved sincerity, but only as he might love a pimp who could keep him in touch with the daily life of his mistress.
”
”
Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time: The Complete Masterpiece)
“
Pimps make the best librarians. Psycho killers, the worst. Ditto conmen. Gangsters, gun runners, bank robbers – adept at crowd control, at collaborating with a small staff, at planning with deliberation and executing with contained fury – all possess the librarian’s basic skill set. Scalpers and loan sharks certainly have a role to play. But even they lack that something, the je ne sais quoi, the elusive it. What would a pimp call it? Yes: the love.
”
”
Avi Steinberg (Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian)
“
Who dies best, the soldier who falls for your sake, or the fly in my whiskey-glass? The happy agony of the fly is his reward for an adventurous dive in no cause but his own. Gorged and crazed, he touches bottom, knows he's gone as far as he can go, and bravely sticks. I sleep on. In the morning I pour new happiness upon the crust of the old, and only as I raise the glass to my lips descry through that rich brown double inch my flattened hero. I drink around his death, being no angler by any inclination, and leave him in the weird shallows. The glass set down, I idle beneath the fan, while beyond my window-bars a warm drizzle passes silently from clouds to leaves.
How to die? How to live? These questions, if we ask the dead fly, are both answered thus: In a drunken state. But drunk on WHAT should we all be? Well, there's love to drink, of course, and death, which is the same thing, and whiskey, better still, and heroin, best of all—except maybe for holiness. Accordingly, let this book, like its characters, be devoted to Addiction, Addicts, Pushers, Prostitutes and Pimps. With upraised needles, Bibles, dildoes and shot glasses, let us now throw our condoms in the fire, unbutton our trousers, and happily commit
THIS MULTITUDE OF CRIMES.
”
”
William T. Vollmann (The Royal Family)
“
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression
”
”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
A strip club is a con. It’s all about leading you on
”
”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Sex is sex, but love is sharing, caring, and respect. If you can have both together, great sex and real love, then you’ve got magic
”
”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
The assertion that Americans love violence and bathe in it daily is a self-serving lie promulgated by fundamentalist religious types and America’s propaganda-savvy gun-pimps.
”
”
Stephen King (Guns (Kindle Single))
“
We say we love self
While pimping out our pussy
Yet, our wombs scream help.
”
”
Sanjo Jendayi
“
Everybody at some level believes in it. It's a deeply seductive image. The image that we all want, as oppressed people, is an image of our masters finally loving us and recognizing our humanity. It is this image that keeps prostitutes with their pimps, the colonized with their colonizers and battered women with their batterers. Everybody dreams of one day being safe.
”
”
Derrick A. Bell (Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform)
“
Someone asked me, “What do you have to say about Rajneesh after his death?” I said that the world has never seen such a pimp nor will it ever see one in the future. He combined Western therapies, the Tantric system, and everything that you could find in the books. He made a big business out of it. He took money from the boys; he took money from girls, and kept it for himself. He is dead and so we don't say anything. Nil nisi bonum (Of the dead speak not unless it be good)
”
”
U.G. Krishnamurti (U.G. Krishnamurti: Love : Love implies division, separation…)
“
I have no ideas, myself! Not a one! there's nothing more vulgar, more common, more disgusting than ideas! libraries are loaded with them! and every sidewalk cafe!...the impotent are bloated with ideas!...they dazzle youth with ideas! they play the pimp!...and youth is ever ready, as you know, Professor, to gobble up anything, to go OOH! and AAH! by the numbers! How those pimps have an easy job of it! the passionate years of youth are spent getting a hard on and gargling ideeaas!...philosophies, if you prefer!...yes sir, philosophies! youth loves sham just as young dogs love those sticks, like bones, that we throw and they run after! they race forward, yipping away, wasting their time, that's the main thing!
”
”
Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Conversations with Professor Y (French Literature Series))
“
Then Montesquiou was mentioned, and somebody described his first love-affair, a Baudelairean love-affair with a female ventriloquist who, while Montesquiou was straining to achieve his climax, would imitate the drunken voice of a pimp, threatening the aristocratic client.
”
”
Edmond de Goncourt (Pages from the Goncourt Journals)
“
dont get me wrong oblivion
I never loved you kiddo
you that was always sticking around
spoiling me for everyone else
telling me how it would make
you nutty if I didnt let you
go the distance
and I gave you my breasts to feel
didnt I
and my mouth to kiss
O I was too good to you oblivion old kid thats all
and when I might have told you
to go ahead and croak yourselflike
you was always threatning you are
are going to do
I didnt
I said go on you inter-
est me
I let you hang around
and whimper
and Ive been getting mine
Listen
theres a fellow I love like I never love anyone else thats six
foot two tall with a face like any girl would die to kiss and a skin
like a little kittens
thats asked me to go to Murrays tonight with him and see the cab-
aret and dance you know
well
if he asks me to take another Im going to and if he asks me to take
another after that Im going to do that and if he puts me into a taxi
and tells the driver to take her easy and steer for the morning Im
going to let him and if he starts in right away putting it to me in
the cab
Im not going to whisper
Oblivion
do you get me
not that Im tired of automats and Childss and handling out ribbon to
old ladies that aint got three teeth and being followed home by pimps
and stewed guys and sleeping lonely in a whitewashed room three thou-
sand below Zero oh no
I could stand that
but its that Im O Gawd how tired
of seeing the white face of you and
feeling the old hands of you and
being teased and jollied about you
and being prayed and implored and
bribed and threatened
to give you my beautiful white body
kiddo
thats why
”
”
E.E. Cummings
“
Perhaps we were, all of us—pimps, whores, racketeers, church members, and children—bound together by the nature of our oppression, the specific and peculiar complex of risks we had to run; if so, within these limits we sometimes achieved with each other a freedom that was close to love.
”
”
James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
“
The face that Moses had begged to see – was forbidden to see – was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20)
The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his brow…
“On your back with you!” One raises a mallet to sink the spike. But the soldier’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on – he grants the warrior’s continued existence. The man swings.
As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm – the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless – the nerves perform exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.
But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being – the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.
His Father! He must face his Father like this!
From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes His mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross.Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.
“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped – murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, over-spent, overeaten – fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held a razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk – you, who moles young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end!
Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp – buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves – relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?
Of course the Son is innocent He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
The Father watches as his heart’s treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.
“Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!”
But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.
The Trinity had planned it. The Son had endured it. The Spirit enabled Him. The Father rejected the Son whom He loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted His sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.
”
”
Joni Eareckson Tada (When God Weeps Kit: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty)
“
A few weeks ago, a pimp had fired a bullet into the mouth of a young SA Führer who had liberated one of his ‘girls’. On Sunday the Stormtrooper had died, and Goebbels’s newspaper Der Angriff had made a saint of the youth who had fallen in love with a whore and paid for it with his life, a martyr for the movement, or Blutzeuge as the Nazis called it.
”
”
Volker Kutscher (The Silent Death (Gereon Rath #2))
“
Perhaps we were, all of us -pimps, whores, racketeers, church members, and children -bound together by the nature of our oppression, the specific and peculiar complex of risks we had to run; if so, within these limits we sometimes achieved with each other a freedom that was close to love. I remember, anyway, church suppers and outing, and later, after I left the church, rent and waistline parties where rage and sorrow sat in the darkness and did not stir, and we ate and drank and talked and laughed and danced and forgot all about "the man." We had the liquor, we had the chicken, the music, and each other, and had no need to pretend to be what we were not, This is the freedom that one hears in some gospel songs, for example, and in jazz.
”
”
James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
“
When porn stars call it a day and head home with bruised and bloodied bodies, some of us attempt to have normal healthy relationships but our suitcase pimp boyfriends become jealous and physically abuse us. So instead we marry our porn directors or regress back to childhood and freeload off of 60 year old sugar daddies. I preferred sugar daddies because I desperately wanted the love and attention of my father.
”
”
Shelley Lubben (Truth Behind the Fantasy of Porn)
“
Feelings of a Pimp They think I was a player because I was devoted to the game They thought I worked hard on my offense to break down these women’s defenses just to score They think it’s the body count that made me manipulate them into my arms to get between their legs They think I’m satisfied with a different woman in my bed every night When during the day, even my bed can feel the loneliness They think I love the easy women They think it’s for the cool points that my heart grew cold They think they have me figured out Another dog chasing after every female dog in the streets They think I’m happy with all the texting buddies, but no wife But they don’t know They don’t know how tired I am of this, how tired I am of myself How tired I am of living like this How tired I am of these games, but that’s the only way I can score with a chick They don’t know how after sleeping with these ladies, I wish I had more chemistry with at least one of them to cuddle, to give goodnight kisses and wake up beside They don’t know how loneliness consumes me With a phone filled with women’s numbers, I still feel unwanted and unworthy They don’t know these easy women make it easy for me to feel confident about myself; although it’s the wrong type of confidence I feel validated by them, I feel accomplished, I feel loved although I’m having sex with them, not making love They don’t know how tired I am of chasing fool’s gold Chasing fast women who would sleep with me in a heartbeat Leaving me with the empty feeling I felt before I started the chase The player in me is played out. I just want love, but that’s the only thing I can’t seem to find So, I keep pimping in hope of finding love Her insecurities were beautiful They opened the door for me as an opportunist She was the perfect candidate Oh so sweet, but oh so hurt How smart would I be if I didn’t capitalize? Some fellas get women drunk and have their way with them I was doing nothing wrong but pretending to be prince charming, just to get the same results I became what they needed emotionally I was the shoulder to cry on, the ear to listen to, the one person who understood I was a smooth criminal manipulating the innocent Did not feel an ounce of guilt because I was weak myself I was insecure I couldn’t help preying on vulnerable women In their weakness I found strength I was a coward, a “wannabe” player I was playing the wrong games, winning the wrong prizes The truth is, no strong man takes advantage of a woman’s vulnerability. It is a trait of the weak. Diary of a Weak Man
”
”
Pierre Alex Jeanty (Unspoken Feelings of a Gentleman)
“
I was born in New York, but have lived only in pockets of it. In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city–on the Right Bank and the Left, among the bourgeoisie and among les misérables, and knew all kinds of people, from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Neuilly. This may sound extremely unprincipled or even obscurely immoral: I found it healthy. I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen.
”
”
James Baldwin (Collected Essays: Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays)
“
Aimée Thanatogenos spoke the tongue of Los Angeles; the sparse furniture of her mind—the objects which barked the intruder's shins—had been acquired at the local High School and University; she presented herself to the world dressed and scented in obedience to the advertisements; brain and body were scarcely distinguishable from the standard product, but the spirit—ah, the spirit was something apart; it had to be sought afar; not here in the musky orchards of the Hesperides, but in the mountain air of the dawn, in the eagle-haunted passes of Hellas. An umbilical cord of cafés and fruit shops, of ancestral shady businesses (fencing and pimping) united Aimée, all unconscious, to the high places of her race. As she grew up the only language she knew expressed fewer and fewer of her ripening needs; the facts which littered her memory grew less substantial; the figure she saw in the looking-glass seemed less recognizably herself. Aimée withdrew herself into a lofty and hieratic habitation.
”
”
Evelyn Waugh (The Loved One)
“
She had done worse, all right, lots worse. She had been a thief, a pimp, a blackmailer, a junkie, a liar and a cheat. She had pretended to love men she had despised. She had done it all, and none of it had worked. Every time she got into a place where she might have had a chance, something inside her had fired up and she ruined her chances. Always…Her whole life was a clutter of three-day jobs, punctured ambitions and drug-deadened hangovers.
'Oh Lindy,' she cried out. 'Help me! Help me!' She clenched her pillow and sobbed. It had been more than twenty years since she had shed any tears for anybody. Now these tears were for herself.
”
”
Don Carpenter (The True Life Story of Jody McKeegan)
“
Cesca sipped from her coffee cup as she peered through the windshield into the darkness. Rain was falling hard on a San Francisco she didn’t recognize from her own universe, or from her time in the other Matt’s universe. The real darkness here had nothing to do with night. This San Francisco mirrored the moral corruption and decay of the society which inhabited it. She and Ariel had been here two days, scouring streets filled with perversion and hopelessness; alleyways inhabited by the homeless and mentally ill; sex shops catering to every perversion imaginable and unimaginable; sidewalks teeming with drug addicts and male prostitutes — some dressed as women; street corners inhabited by once lovely young women prematurely aging from selling their bodies to all takers — male and female; children of both sexes, from as young as seven and eight, dressed by pimps to attract pedophiles who cruised this part of the city nightly. Many of the children would be sold on the spot, never to be seen again. Sun-faded and now graffitied wall mosaics of galvanizing yet transient political cult personalities, erected by their blinded followers centuries ago, marked this alternate world’s gradual slide into an ethical, and finally moral abyss, from which it had never crawled out.
"God, I can’t believe this is San Francisco,” whispered Ariel from the seat next to Cesca. “I feel like I need to run a bar of soap over my soul.
”
”
Bobby Underwood (The Dreamless Sea (Matt Ransom #9))
“
As a black man Al, who went through the Civil rights fight in the 60s just like you did, and saw the first freedom bus burn in my home town of Anniston, Alabama, on May 14, 1961; I hated Dr. King for his non-violent philosophy. That did not change until I became a Christian later in life. Then I understood God’s biblical truth of love your enemy and do good to those who hate and persecute you. I think I have the right to tell you this sir; I think the likes of you and Jesse Jackson have done more damage to the black race than any white man will ever accomplish. You see as long as you can produce an ethnicity with a victim mentality to keep them in poverty, as the two of you get richer – you know like poverty pimps – and convince them that it is the white man’s fault because he has his boot on their necks, and as long as you teach our beautiful black women that there is a government out there to be their baby’s daddy, the two of you win. You are the self-proclaimed, appointed leaders of the black people. How we as black people have swallowed the lie that we have to have certain black leaders to get on the government teat escapes me.
”
”
Ken Hutcherson
“
Armed combatants in war, who surrender their individuality and usually their capacity for moral choice, become part of a herd of dehumanized killers. Sex in wartime is reduced to its crudest biological function. It is referred to in marching cadences and ribald small talk like defecation. Pornography, prostitution, and rape are ubiquitous in war zones. In war, empathy, compassion, and love are banished. Human beings, especially women, become objects, to exploit or kill. The violence and commodification of human beings for profit are the quintessential expressions of global capitalism. Our corporate masters are pimps. We are all being debased and degraded, rendered impoverished and powerless, to service the cruel and lascivious demands of the corporate elite. And when they tire of us, or when we are no longer of use, we are discarded. If the United States accepts prostitution as legal and permissible in a civil society, as Germany has done, we will take one more collective step toward the global plantation being built by the powerful. The fight against prostitution is the fight against a dehumanizing corporate capitalism that begins, but will not end, with the subjugation of impoverished girls and women.
”
”
Chris Hedges (America: The Farewell Tour)
“
Don’t cry Meg. It’s not that bad.”
“It’s not that bad? Ha! I’m thirty years old, with two black eyes, a swollen nose, a big, honking, yellow knot on my forehead, and the haircut from hell. As if that isn’t enough, I had a transvestite in my bed this morning, my husband is a lying, cheating, cradle robbing, bastard, who at some point slept with my best friend.”
Jack scooted over to the middle of the seat, and stopped listening to his head and wrapped his arms around her. Big mistake! From inside, four faces were pressed to the window.
“My last orgasm-with a partner- was…hell I can’t remember when! I frequently knock myself out for entertainment purposes, I have little boobs, big feet, squishy panties, nosy neighbors and demon possessed fish. God hates me!”
Jack held her tighter.
“I have frequent flyer miles at the hospital. I fed my husband marijuana Ex-lax brownies and shoved a marble up his butt.”
Jack pulled away to look at her and she was serious. And crying. Big, sad, alligator tears that made his heart swell. “My mother is a holy rolling, Catholic Dr. Ruth, complete with condoms and Rosary beads. I write about relationships and sex, both of which I suck at and I hired a Private Investigator to pimp me out.”
Jack burst out laughing and she pushed him away and swatted his shoulder.
“And now you’re laughing at me. Could things get any worse?
”
”
Amy Johnson
“
A pool game mixes ritual with geometry. The slow spaciousness of the green felt mirrors some internal state you get to after a few beers. Back at school, I’d been trying to read the philosophy of art, which I was grotesquely unequipped to do but nonetheless stuck on. I loved the idea that looking at a painting or listening to a concerto could make you somehow “transcend” the day-in, day-out bullshit that grinds you down; how in one instant of pure attention you could draw something inside that made you forever larger. In those days the drug culture was pimping “expanded consciousness,” a lie that partly descended from the old postindustrial lie of progress: any change in how your head normally worked must count as an improvement. Maybe my faith in that lie slid me toward an altered state that day. Or maybe it was just the beer, which I rarely drank. In any case, walking around the pool table, I felt borne forward by some internal force or fire. My first shot sank a ball. Then I made the most unlikely bank shot in history to drop two balls at once after a wild V trajectory. Daddy whistled. The sky through the window had gone the exact blue of the chalk I was digging my cue stick in, a shade solid and luminous at once, like the sheer turquoise used for the Madonna’s robe in Renaissance paintings. Slides from art history class flashed through my head. For a second, I lent that color some credit, as if it meant something that made my mind more buoyant. But that was crazy.
”
”
Mary Karr (The Liars' Club)
“
THIS IS MY ABC BOOK of people God loves. We’ll start with . . . A: God loves Adorable people. God loves those who are Affable and Affectionate. God loves Ambulance drivers, Artists, Accordion players, Astronauts, Airplane pilots, and Acrobats. God loves African Americans, the Amish, Anglicans, and Animal husbandry workers. God loves Animal-rights Activists, Astrologers, Adulterers, Addicts, Atheists, and Abortionists. B: God loves Babies. God loves Bible readers. God loves Baptists and Barbershop quartets . . . Boys and Boy Band members . . . Blondes, Brunettes, and old ladies with Blue hair. He loves the Bedraggled, the Beat up, and the Burnt out . . . the Bullied and the Bullies . . . people who are Brave, Busy, Bossy, Bitter, Boastful, Bored, and Boorish. God loves all the Blue men in the Blue Man Group. C: God loves Crystal meth junkies, D: Drag queens, E: and Elvis impersonators. F: God loves the Faithful and the Faithless, the Fearful and the Fearless. He loves people from Fiji, Finland, and France; people who Fight for Freedom, their Friends, and their right to party; and God loves people who sound like Fat Albert . . . “Hey, hey, hey!” G: God loves Greedy Guatemalan Gynecologists. H: God loves Homosexuals, and people who are Homophobic, and all the Homo sapiens in between. I: God loves IRS auditors. J: God loves late-night talk-show hosts named Jimmy (Fallon or Kimmel), people who eat Jim sausages (Dean or Slim), people who love Jams (hip-hop or strawberry), singers named Justin (Timberlake or Bieber), and people who aren’t ready for this Jelly (Beyoncé’s or grape). K: God loves Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye Kardashian. (Please don’t tell him I said that.) L: God loves people in Laos and people who are feeling Lousy. God loves people who are Ludicrous, and God loves Ludacris. God loves Ladies, and God loves Lady Gaga. M: God loves Ministers, Missionaries, and Meter maids; people who are Malicious, Meticulous, Mischievous, and Mysterious; people who collect Marbles and people who have lost their Marbles . . . and Miley Cyrus. N: God loves Ninjas, Nudists, and Nose pickers, O: Obstetricians, Orthodontists, Optometrists, Ophthalmologists, and Overweight Obituary writers, P: Pimps, Pornographers, and Pedophiles, Q: the Queen of England, the members of the band Queen, and Queen Latifah. R: God loves the people of Rwanda and the Rebels who committed genocide against them. S: God loves Strippers in Stilettos working on the Strip in Sin City; T: it’s not unusual that God loves Tom Jones. U: God loves people from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates; Ukrainians and Uruguayans, the Unemployed and Unemployment inspectors; blind baseball Umpires and shady Used-car salesmen. God loves Ushers, and God loves Usher. V: God loves Vegetarians in Virginia Beach, Vegans in Vietnam, and people who eat lots of Vanilla bean ice cream in Las Vegas. W: The great I AM loves will.i.am. He loves Waitresses who work at Waffle Houses, Weirdos who have gotten lots of Wet Willies, and Weight Watchers who hide Whatchamacallits in their Windbreakers. X: God loves X-ray technicians. Y: God loves You. Z: God loves Zoologists who are preparing for the Zombie apocalypse. God . . . is for the rest of us. And we have the responsibility, the honor, of letting the world know that God is for them, and he’s inviting them into a life-changing relationship with him. So let ’em know.
”
”
Vince Antonucci (God for the Rest of Us: Experience Unbelievable Love, Unlimited Hope, and Uncommon Grace)
“
It was like a page out of the telephone book. Alphabetically, numerically, statistically, it made sense. But when you looked at it up close, when you examined the pages separately, or the parts separately, when you examined one lone individual and what constituted him, examined the air he breathed, the life he led, the chances he risked, you saw something so foul and degrading, so low, so miserable, so utterly hopeless and senseless, that it was worse than looking into a volcano.
Outwardly it seems to be a beautiful honeycomb, with all the drones crawling over each other in a frenzy of work; inwardly it’s a slaughterhouse, each man killing off his neighbor and sucking the juice from his bones. Superficially it looks like a bold, masculine world; actually it’s a whorehouse run by women, with the native sons acting as pimps and the bloody foreigners selling their flesh... The whole continent is sound asleep and in that sleep a grand nightmare is taking place…
At night the streets of New York reflect the crucifixion and death of Christ. When the snow is on the ground and there is the utmost silence there comes out of the hideous buildings of New York a music of such sullen despair and bankruptcy as to make the flesh shrivel. No stone was laid upon another with love or reverence; no street was laid for dance or joy. One thing has been added to another in a mad scramble to fill the belly, and the streets smell of empty bellies and full bellies and bellies half full. The streets smell of a hunger which has nothing to do with love; they smell of the belly which is insatiable and of the creations of the empty belly which are null and void.
Just as the city itself had become a huge tomb in which men struggled to earn a decent death so my own life came to resemble a tomb which I was constructing out of my own death. I was walking around in a stone forest the center of which was chaos; sometimes in the dead center, in the very heart of chaos, I danced or drank myself silly, or I made love, or I befriended some one, or I planned a new life, but it was all chaos, all stone, and all hopeless and bewildering. Until the time when I would encounter a force strong enough to whirl me out of this mad stone forest no life would be possible for me nor could one page be written which would have meaning…
Everybody and everything is a part of life...
As an individual, as flesh and blood, I am leveled down each day to make the fleshless, bloodless city whose perfection is the sum of all logic and death to the dream. I am struggling against an oceanic death in which my own death is but a drop of water evaporating. To raise my own individual life but a fraction of an inch above this sinking sea of death I must have a faith greater than Christ’s, a wisdom deeper than that of the greatest seer. I must have the ability and the patience to formulate what is not contained in the language of our time, for what is now intelligible is meaningless. My eyes are useless, for they render back only the image of the known. My whole body must become a constant beam of light, moving with an ever greater rapidity, never arrested, never looking back, never dwindling. The city grows like a cancer; I must grow like a sun. The city eats deeper and deeper into the red; it is an insatiable white louse which must die eventually of inanition. I am going to starve the white louse which is eating me up. I am going to die as a city in order to become again a man. Therefore I close my ears, my eyes, my mouth.
Infinitely better, as life moves toward a deathly perfection, to be just a bit of breathing space, a stretch of green, a little fresh air, a pool of water. Better also to receive men silently and to enfold them, for there is no answer to make while they are still frantically rushing to turn the corner.
”
”
Henry Miller (Tropic of Capricorn (Tropic, #2))
“
. Oh, my future brother-in-law called me today to find out if any of my friends from New York might be interested in making a bad decision for the night. Since when did I become a pimp to get Chance laid? I thought he was bringing that lovely flower lady.
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”
Alex Morgan (Chasing Midnight (The Darkest Desires of Dixie, #1))
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I’m a guy who is more than willing to forgive, because we’re all human and we all make mistakes, but I don’t respond well to betrayal. Someone fucks me, I don’t waste my time with revenge. They simply stop existing
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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If you can learn to keep your promises, people are going to love you for it, because the average asshole talks shit and has zero follow-through
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Fuck that! If you believe in what you’re doing, you need to tell the world. You need to get out there and make noise. That’s the only way to get attention
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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A good salesperson doesn’t talk; a good salesperson listens
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I’ve always worked harder than the next guy and that’s why I’m successful
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
No, it’s not a good job. A good job is working at the bank for forty hours a week. You’ve got a regular schedule, all sorts of guaranteed benefits, and you know you’re going to have time for your friends and family. You’re probably going to be scrambling to make ends meet every month, and you might have to put that vacation on hold for a third straight year, but it’s a good job
”
”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I get out of bed in the morning and I think, It’s good to be alive. It’s good to be me. Let’s grab today by the balls
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
The average human being has a hard time getting motivated. Some people never get motivated
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
What was that definition of madness? You keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I once heard somebody say that the love of a man for a woman can never be as great as the love of a man for his dog, and I was beginning to believe it
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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To get motherfucked. That’s one thing he won’t tolerate
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
At a brothel, on the other hand, you get a guy who comes in with only $300 to spend and the girl needs to get inside that guy’s head, make him fall in love with her, and have him mortgage his house so he will spend his last dime on her. I know that seems cruel, but that’s the reality. It’s about money
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I guess some men can’t handle freedom
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Dale Carnegie had taught me not to worry
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Introspection can be a dangerous thing
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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It’s called the repetition compulsion. You keep repeating your own history, thinking that next time you’re finally going to get it right
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Was it me? Was I the problem? What was I doing wrong? Had I not loved them enough? Had I not been good enough to them? Had I held back
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I have never understood Chapter 11. You’re broke, you owe people a shitload of money, you throw up your hands and say, “I can’t pay,” and six months later you’re back in business, debt-free. And fuck everyone you owe. Does that seem right? I didn’t think so
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I wasn’t going to break the law to save my ass
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
We all have shit to deal with, but when you come to work I need you to put that shit in a box and leave it in the trunk of your car. I don’t want you taking phone calls from your wife, or from your ex, or from that guy who hit on you last night at the bar. When you’re at work, you don’t have a personal life. Deal with that shit on your own time. You are here to sell
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Whatever you can conceive, you can achieve
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
To me, prostitution isn’t about selling yourself; you’re selling a service
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
He loves women, idolizes them. He always says “God is a woman.” But sometimes I think he wishes he could be a woman
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
A relationship is like a shower. When the temperature’s just right, you feel like you can stay in there forever. But when the water goes cold, it’s time to get the fuck out
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Dennis is an icon. Hefner had some good pictures in his magazine, sure, but Dennis Hof sells legal pussy. He’s an American hero
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
There’s one more reason men love prostitutes. It’s not just variety, not just sex, not just a chance to relive their Lost Youth, and not just an adventure; it’s an education
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Dennis made four resolutions as a young teenager: He would never be poor like his parents. (He is famously wealthy.) He would be universally admired and envied. (He has 500-plus young women who call him Daddy, and men nationwide who envy his sexual opportunities.) He would never let anyone — especially a woman — tell him what he could not do. (Unlike his father, Dennis never allows anyone to tell him no.) He would have a “little honey” to love and care for him for the rest of his life
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Linda back to my place for a threesome, my first. It was as wonderful as I’d imagined. I felt like I was the star of my very own porn movie. If you haven’t tried it, you should — and pronto
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
People like to be heard, Carnegie said. It makes them feel good. When you make a man feel good, simply by listening, you make a friend for life. And smile; be pleasant. Carnegie even suggested that one should smile when talking on the phone, because the person at the other end can feel your smile. He said people listen to logic, but they respond to emotion
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
And the secret of life is simple: You fall down, you get up
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
The answer is right in front of us, but we don’t have the courage to open our eyes or to act
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I don’t want you trying to be somebody you’re not and you shouldn’t ask me to be somebody I’m not. That’s where the problems start. That road leads to hell
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
It’s a myth that people change
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
You are who you are. You can bemoan it, you can try to become a different person, or you can celebrate yourself. I choose to do the latter
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I love fucking and I hope to die in bed — but not too soon! — fucking someone. Preferably someone I love
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
The fact that a man will come to the BunnyRanch and pay a woman $10,000 to spend the night with her, well, that feels fucking good
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
There’s a thin line between modeling and porn. (That was a joke, by the way.)
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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Worrying is counterproductive. Worst-case scenario? I’d have to buy myself another house
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Women. Jesus. What a gift
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
If you had money, you had a good time. If not, you didn’t
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”
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
There is so much he does not understand about himself, and no one can choose to change anything they do not understand
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I had always enjoyed sex, sure, but until that day I hadn’t realized how little I knew about it. So of course I kept going back, a willing student, sometimes three and four nights a week, and I soon realized I had a big problem: I loved fucking and I couldn’t get enough of it
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
If I wanted to fuck three times a day and more, I did. And the more I fucked, the better I felt. I wasn’t worried about the Meaning of Life anymore. I knew what it was
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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But my penis was powerful, and my penis had its own plans
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
There’s nothing like burying yourself inside a woman. Nothing
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I loved sex from the start, and I could never get enough of it. I still can’t
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
You are the fucking king. King of the Brothels. You’re a fucking celebrity. You walk down any street in any city in this country and people run over for autographs and beg you to pose for pictures. But if you leave this, it leaves you, too. And who are you without your brothels
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I believe that despite all the talk of love, a relationship depends on three factors: respect, trust, and accountability
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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Empathy is learned within our family and other connections as we grow and develop. Empathy is the essential skill missing for him. It is one he needs to develop if he wants better relationships in the future. All children are self-centered until they learn to recognize and think about others’ feelings
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Dennis is high when he is having sex — preferably with very young girls who look the way he likes. His other preference is “centerfolds” and porn stars
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I found a book by Dale Carnegie, How To Stop Worrying and Start Living, and that’s what I took
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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That class taught me that everyone has a story, and that every life has value, and I learned the importance of listening to other people
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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Until you really know a vagina, it can be pretty intimidating. Get to know it, though, it’s a gift
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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And I guess that’s what people mean when they talk about the triumph of hope over experience. Life kicks you to the curb sometimes, lots of times, and you should know better, but you still want to believe. And that’s what keeps us going
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I’m not saying it was right, because I know it wasn’t, but from time to time I enjoyed being with a woman who actually seemed to like me, even if she was only pretending
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I need a woman next to me at night. What’s the point of getting into bed alone
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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To me, a woman is a goddess, and I can’t live in a godless world
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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How can you fault a man for doing his best
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
I honestly felt I had always done my best with the women in my life. Sure, I fucked other women, but that’s just who I am: a very horny guy. Am I abnormal? Am I insatiable? I don’t know, but I don’t care. I love sex
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
Worrying had no purpose, and only left one paralyzed with fear and indecision. It was almost an act of self-sabotage
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
“
The right approach to any challenge was to get the facts, analyze the facts, and ask yourself if you could live with the worst possible result. And if you thought about it with a clear head, you’d realize that the world wasn’t going to end. The lesson I took home with me is that everything in life involves risk, but to not take risks is to not live. People who don’t take risks seldom succeed. The other thing I learned is that busy people seldom have time to worry. If you’re sitting around doing nothing, your imagination starts running wild, and that’s when the problems start. But if you act, if you keep moving forward, you’ll be fine. Think of a bicycle: If you try to balance it while standing still, it’s not easy. But if you’re moving, it’s a breeze. That’s how I feel about life: Keep moving
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)
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But I’m the guy who makes the final decision, and if things go south I have no one to blame but myself
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Dennis Hof (The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money)