Quotes from Cherie Priest

I like to pretend that I'm covering my tracks, bracing for any contingency. Ready for the worst, and all that jazz. I always feel better if there's a plan in place. And in this case, the plan was, "Leave the blind guy in charge of the juvenile delinquents and everything will be just fine. Probably.

It's not meant to be comfortable," Cly told him. He pushed at the captain's chair, which had been furnished with a leather pad in the shape of a cushion. It looked approximately as soft as an old book. Fang

Soon the bare but civilized streets of St. Paul gave way to emptier places with shorter buildings and fewer streetlights … and then no buildings, and no streetlights, and after a few turns I was urging the Nissan along a two-lane road in the middle of what could best be described as the geographic center of Godforsaken, Bumblefuck. The

At no point, anywhere in Seattle, is there a clear and obvious route to an interstate. And, if you find yourself magically right beside an interstate on-ramp, you can safely assume that it's leading the wrong direction. You might say to yourself, "Self, if I've found the on-ramp going this direction, surely the on-ramp going the other direction must be right nearby!" But you'd be wrong. This place was designed by crack addicts, I'm convinced of it.

Chain link all around with razor wire at the top, the fence was maybe nine feet high. I didn't see any signs right away, but as I trudged along its length I eventually encountered an admonition to KEEP OUT. PROPERTY MONITORED AND MAINTAINED BY THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT. It might as well have said, WELCOME, RAYLENE. LET YOURSELF INSIDE, BUT KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN, M'KAY?

Besides, American ought to be a good thing, the kind of thing that brings everybody together instead of deciding who's good enough to be one and who isn't.

some place to stand and place a lever, there's nowhere from which to move the world.

But tonight she inhaled, pushing the air past the tightness, feeling around for the lump in her throat. It was there. The odds were fair that it always would be. But tonight it was smaller, and she did not sob, but smile.

If you've never been to Atlanta, then let me save you a bit of grief. If someone tells you something's on "Peachtree," you must demand that they get more specific. There are probably a dozen incarnations of Peachtree, going in at least that many directions through every part of town.

I don't like raccoons. They look … shifty, with their little burglar masks and everything. Also, they carry rabies. Can I catch rabies? Probably not. All the same, it sounds gruesome—and I think we all know that cute, fuzzy woodland creatures are not to be trusted on general principle.

My own mental health issues had come and gone the same way, diagnosed nearly a hundred years ago as simple "hysteria," which only meant that I was a woman and really, who gave a shit what was actually wrong with me? Or

Holy Moses, dude. You're trying to apply a rigorous scientific standard to something that kind of… comes and goes, and mostly sounds bugnuts insane if I talk about it out loud.

I found a narrow slot in which to leave my vehicle. I had to bash the bumper of an SUV to squeeze into the nook, but I didn't exactly shed a tear over the event and no, I didn't leave a note. That's what they get for parking too close to a fire hydrant, with one wheel on the curb. An asshole who leaves his (or her) vehicle in such a fashion deserves whatever automotive detailing inconvenience comes his (or her) way.

No matter how bad your day, how terrible your choices, how ridiculous your risks, a dog would never tell you how stupid you were.

But at some point, a full-grown woman has to be accountable for her own self, and for the choices she's made.

As an old acquaintance of mine used to say, "If you can't duck it, fuck it." I'm pretty sure he knew it was duct and not duck, but I'll forgive him for the sake of the rhyme.

I didn't know what was making that noise, but whatever it was, it was mad and it was big. And I didn't want to meet it with nothing but my cheeks in my hands.

As far as the Internet was concerned, it didn't exist. And in this day and age, if the Internet says it doesn't exist, it's either dead boring or totally fascinating in a top secret men-in-black kind of way.

Now it was growing late again, and cooler, which the nurse found disorienting. It felt as though her entire life had been lived from dusk to dawn ever since she learned of Phillip, only tiptoeing around the edges of sunset or sunrise, and sleeping or traveling all day.

Someone else's phone rang twice, and was answered by a scowl I could hear all the way over on my end of the line.

He'd been sticking his neck out, which is literally the stupidest thing I can imagine anyone doing when it comes to vampires. That ought to be Rule Number One For Dealing With Vampires, right there. Don't stick your neck out!

a certain stink on a certain kind of soul, a foul scent of hateful smallness too often thwarted . . . then given an ounce of power.

Such is the way of things, all order passing into chaos, given time enough.

It was darker than the devil's asshole out there.