139 Quotes by Patrick deWitt

My flesh and scalp started to ring and tingle and I became someone other than myself, or I became my second self, and this person was highly pleased to be stepping from the murk and into the living world where he might do just as he wished.

Frances said, “I ran from one brightly burning disaster to the next, pal. That’s the way I was. Possibly you won’t like to think of your mother as one who lived, but I’ll tell you something: it’s fun to run from one brightly burning disaster to the next.

Let us look within ourselves and search out the dormant warrior.” “Mine is dormant to the point of non-existence, sir.

A man accepts an inferior cup of tea, telling himself it is only a small thing. But what comes next? Do you see?

I will admit he is unusual, but that is perhaps the closest I could come to complimenting him.

The story of Reginald Watts was a luckless one dealing in every manner of failure and catastrophe, though he spoke of this without bitterness or regret, and in fact seemed to find humor in his numberless missteps: ‘I’ve failed at straight business, I’ve failed at criminal enterprise, I’ve failed at love, I’ve failed at friendship. You name it, I’ve failed at it. Go ahead and name something. Anything at all.

You always bring God into arguments you know you’re losing, for the liar is lonely, and welcomes all manner of company.

Frances had come to think of gift-giving as a polite form of witchcraft.

Lies can be wonderful things, and when a lie is told artfully, if it's done with a degree of craftsmanship, I can't help but admire the liar.