Quotes from Lee Thomas

Over the years I had convinced myself that brutality required motive, but this is a fool's deceit. Cruelty is the motive; religion and politics and resources are simply the cloth man weaves to curtain his desires for violence.

Cruelty is not taught. It is as certain as a compass point. One can be instructed in the specifics of cruelty, like one can be taught to use a spoon, a knife, a fork, but even without these skills a man will still eat. The need is with us.

At night they emerge from the water, stalking over the grassy field, leaving bits of themselves on the ground. They gather at my bedside – Bum, Harold, David, the father I'd known before the war, and my neighbor Mr. Lang – and they gaze down on me, whispering revelations of who they were and who I am. And the strongest voice belongs to the German, who looks upon me with concern and warmth, and he tells me, "If you can stand up, you'll live.

They pushed closer. Chest to chest. Belly to belly. Two edges of a wound needing to heal.

Death was bleach and it burned away the stains, leaving nothing but white.

Every human being was a victim of something, whether it was desire, addiction, ignorance, or faith.

In politics and in war, monsters are defined by which side of a fight a man claims. He is still a man to those who share his beliefs, perhaps even a hero. To those that oppose his philosophy, he is a beast, a creature, one of a thousand unspeakable demons clashing over an ideal.

The priest's deep brown eyes reminded Nicky of the bayou: light reflected on their surface, but dark things moved beneath.

But the boy knew that monsters didn't die as easily as hope.

If Bobby had to guess, he'd say that killing folks was some kind of sickness where imagination and emotion got all mixed up. If

No real ghosts, Ted told himself. Memories were the only ghosts adults had: Memories and regrets.