168 Quotes by John D. MacDonald

For perhaps the first time in my life I appreciated the corrosive effects of total uncertainty.

Junior Allen grinned and grinned and grinned. But some instinct made him wary of me. I would look toward him and see those little blue eyes studying me over that wide smile. He was a big old tom watching benignly as the mice cavorted. He didn’t want another cat at the party. There wasn’t enough for two.

It was to have been a quiet evening at home.

I talked with Junior Allen. He didn’t have his mind on it. He was crouched in the brush, and he could taste lamb, and he was alerted for the first shy sound of the little hoofs coming along the trail. I gently and indirectly advanced the idea of my coming along, and he firmly closed the door. He got up and sprang nimbly onto the dock, snapped the weak dock light on, checked his lines, adjusted a fender and came aboard again, restless.

Once in a while they show up to ask some more questions, but you are amiable, slightly stupid, and very polite.

In spite of the air conditioning, she had filled the lounge with a faint sharp-sweet odor of large overheated girl.

I went back to Lois. She had a glass of bourbon that looked like a glass of iced coffee. Her smile was loose and wet and her eyes didn’t track.

The sun was visible from Florida, but it hadn’t gotten to me.

If you look over in that direction, like two hundred yards, you will see some birds walking. Never drive the boat toward where the birds are walking. First rule of navigation.