Quotes from Dean Koontz

His resiliency was not the resiliency of the dumb but of a lamb who can remember hurt but cannot sustain the anger or the bitterness that brittles the heart.

Furtive behavior is always noticed and, when noticed, inevitably raises an alarm. On the other hand, a man acting boldly and directly is viewed as honest and harmless, is not remarked upon, and is later forgotten altogether.

the darkest desire of humankind—to hold absolute power, to control, to command obedience, to eliminate all voices of disagreement and dissent—had found its full expression.

You play everything so close to your vest, it's like your entire life is one long poker hand.

You could know the science of a thing and still find the phenomenon mysterious and mystical, and feel small and vulnerable in the face of it.

Recognizing the structure of your psychology doesn't mean that you can easily rebuild it. The Chamber of Unreasonable Guilt is part of my mental architecture, and I doubt that I will ever be able to renovate that particular room in this strange castle that is me.

I was the worst kind of fool. When I look back on that August night, changed forever by all my wounds and all my suffering, that undamaged Odd Thomas seems like a different human being from me, immeasurably more confident than I am now, still able to hope, but not as wise, and I mourn for him.

THE INNOCENT BOY, THE EVIL FATHER, THE ANTS, THE FISH, THE BIRDS

rational optimism is required of anyone who hopes to be a survivor

He continued to stroke its back and scratch its ears, but after a minute or two he realized he was seeking something from the dog that it could not provide: meaning, purpose, relief from despair.

The trouble with the what-if game was that once you began to play it, you couldn't just quit whenever you wanted. From one what-if grew another.

When you're trying to figure out who…you've got to keep in mind the roots of violence.

His dreams were killing him.

I'm only what I'm here to be.

I didn't try to puzzle through how such a thing could be. The world is filled with mysteries; and I have learned that every mystery will either explain itself--or it won't. I can't force Nature to draw back her curtains and reveal the hidden machinery that constitutes the true workings of the world.

Although enlightened people know that an extreme phobia wasn't a form of madness, hey could not help but regard it as odd.

envy is second only to self-pity as the most dangerous of all emotions.

Rupert Clockenwall seemed to have been too bland a soul to come back from the grave on a haunt.

Most often, a haloed moon means nothing more than that reflective volcanic ash has made its way into the stratosphere, and a two-headed goat is only a genetic curiosity. The mommy-porn genre currently sweeping the book industry and the Babylonian excess of most television shows probably fall within the historical norm in our culture's sleaze index and are not omens of the imminent collapse of civilization, though if I were not so busy, I might start building an ark.

In nightmares, we can't look into our own eyes except by indirection, perhaps because we fear discovering that therein lie the worst monsters plaguing us.

Some place existed before the universe, exists outside of it now, and will exist when the universe collapses back upon itself. In that mysterious place, outside of time, Stormy waits for me.

A FRIGHTENED, ANGRY, FOUR-HUNDRED-POUND, antisocial chef with a combat shotgun never leads to anything good.

she sees through you and knows your truest heart, but loves you anyway, [...]

THE WAY AND THE WAY NOT