146 Quotes by Robert B. Parker

And Quirk’s a captain now,” he said. “Captain Quirk?” The motorcycle cop grinned. “Captain Quirk,” he said.

You ever f**k Susan here?” she said, her face almost touching mine. “I’m impressed,” I said. “The question is intrusive, annoying, coarse, and voyeuristic. That’s quite a lot to get into a simple question.

I put my arms around her and closed my eyes and put my cheek against the top of her head and stood for a long time without speaking while my soul melted into her. I knew we weren’t the same person. I knew that it was good that we weren’t. I knew separateness made love possible. But there were moments, like this one, of crystalline stillness, when it felt as if we really could merge like two oceans at the bottom of the world.

Sandy’s face was very close to mine in the crowded room. She had a wide mouth and a lot of teeth. She had turned in her seat so that she had one thigh on each side of my leg. Her chest was against my arm. In another minute we wouldn’t have to go anywhere to have sex.

Susan said. “Kindness is not dangerous. You have found a way to work and live which allows you to integrate the violence and the compassion. If you had no impulse to violence, your compassion wouldn’t be so admirable. If you had no compassion, your violence would be intolerable. You understand what I’m saying?

One must have a mind of winter, I thought, to behold the nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.- from The Snow Man, by Wallace Stevens

Susan laughed. I always loved the sound of her laughter. And to have caused it was worth the west side of heaven.

Susan had decided to sit by the pool at the hotel with a copy of a book by Alice Miller called The Drama of the Gifted Child.

I watched the kids walking past us on the sidewalk. They looked pretty much like any other kids. They were dressed for each other. Oversized clothes, sneakers, hats on backwards, or sideways. Most of them tried to look confident. Most of them were full of pretense. All of them were a little overmatched by the speed at which the world came at them. But these kids weren’t like other kids, and I knew it. These kids were doomed. And they knew it.