Quotes from Paul Levine

I don't tweet or blog or order pizza with arugula on top. You won't find my mug on Facebook or Instagram. I don't have a life coach, an aroma therapist, or a manicurist, and I sure as hell don't do Pilates.

Life, John Lennon famously said, is what happens to you while you're making other plans. Now that I think of it, Lennon, that wizard of words and music, probably wasn't the first. There's an old Yiddish proverb, "Man plans and God laughs." Probably every culture has a virtually identical aphorism.

I've never been disbarred, committed or convicted of moral turpitude, and the only time I was arrested, it was a case of mistaken identity...I didn't know the guy I hit was a cop.

I stood there, 220 pounds of ex-football player, ex-public defender, ex-a-lot-of-things, leaning against the faded walnut rail of the witness stand, home to a million sweaty palms. To Speak for the Dead (The Jake Lassiter Series) http://tinyurl.com/69eua2t

If your theories prove to be a floccinaucinihilipilification." "A flossy…what?" "Sorry. Such an ostentatious, academic word. If your theories prove to be valueless, where are you then?

With women, my wiring shorts out. My senses respond to the physical and the chemical, the scent and sheen of her. Evil could not possibly reside in the form of this angel. Or could it? Sure, I'm politically incorrect. I admit it; I confess; guilty as charged. I am, Your Honor, the lowest of the species, still wet from the swamp, webbed feet fossilized in the mud. I am a Man!

Floating below me were five-hundred-pound wallets with teeth.

the question falls within the penumbra of the detective's expertise.

Any man who watches three games of football in a row should be declared legally dead." – Erma Bombeck

What's tequila, blackberry brandy, and rum?" "Culo de fuego. A flaming asshole.

I have a Florida concealed firearms permit. But then, who doesn't? We have about nine hundred thousand residents licensed to carry concealed weapons, tops in the nation. Take that, Texas!

Unanimous. All nine justices. Cops need a warrant to search your cell phone." "Surprising outcome, don't you think?" "Not at all. The justices don't have bags of cocaine in the trunks of their cars, so the drug seizure cases usually go the government's way. But every justice has a cell phone.

Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas.

You are consistently dishonorable and therefore immensely trustworthy. You always eschew principle and reward venality.

So sue me, I think the marijuana laws are bullshit.

cuisse de grenouilles provençale.

then traced a fingertip across his forehead, around one eye, along the length of his nose. As if she wanted to later draw his likeness.

movement from inside, the sound of

chasing. A retainer means "pay me now for work I may or may not do later." Hourly bills are exercises in creative writing. Our "research time" gets us paid to learn what we should have known or to re-learn what we have forgotten.

I'd head to the Taurus, the only bar in the Grove that's older than I am. It's a brew-and-burger place in a quiche-and-cappuccino world, and I like it there. I'd have a couple of drafts, shoot some blow darts on the patio, tell harmless lies to various women, all the time wondering just what the hell was going on.

Your favorite." She had marinated the fish filets in a mixture of tequila, lime juice, and orange liqueur, with a touch of olive oil and garlic. Now, she spooned a sauce of tomato, jalapeno, onion, and brown sugar over the cooked fish.

on his own shoulder and lumber down the aisle between thirty-foot-high

Did I want a lawyer? Hell no, I didn't even want to be a lawyer.

retired army captain