The beating of the drums, which had seemed so monotonous, now took on the sound of a heartbeat, a deep, steady, reassuring throb that seemed to beat up through the soles of his shoes. The chanting went up above the beat, below it, swirled around it, now joyous, now mournful, sometimes a little teasing, maybe even a little mischievous. He couldn’t tell where.

People who read are never strangers.

Suicide by Alaska.

When you betrayed someone, you didn’t just betray them, you betrayed your families, your community, an entire way of life.

We need more bodies, ’cause it’s not looking enough like the last scene in Hamlet already. – Chopper Jim Chopin.

Who cares, anymore? Nobody believes anything politicians say. It’s not like they’re working for us, all they do after they get into office is run for reelection. Money, money, money, that’s all it’s about.

Cops never took anything on faith, and disbelieved every story that was told them on principle until and unless they could confirm that the story was fact in all its essentials, and even then remained wary and unconvinced. Cop shops bred skeptics. Skeptics cherished few illusions about human nature, and therefore were seldom disappointed.

Why was it that the instant you sent someone a check, no matter how worthy the organization, the first thing they did was ask you for more? Irritating, and a waste of the money she had just sent them.

Over a third of the Newenhan population was under eighteen,which didn't make his job any easier, the hormonally challenged being terminally and all too often fatally prone to acts of stupidity.

Science fiction is the agent provocateur of literature.