Quotes from Robert B. Parker

Don't you think we're oversexed?" "You're the shrink," I said. "You tell me." "Yes," she said. "I believe we are." "What should we do about it?" I said. "Encourage the pathology," Susan said, and smiled her rebelangel smile at me.

I think they were worried that you are a small-town doofus," Rita said, "rather than a high-powered urban hotshot…like, say, me." "Anything else?" "I'd say their combined intelligence is about that of a mud puddle." Jesse nodded.

Hawk could track a salmon to its spawning bed without getting wet. But

Rita didn't mind. I knew she wouldn't. Hawk fascinated her. Among other things he was male, which gave him a running start

It's better to be feared than loved. Because you can't make them love you. But you can make them fear you.

How can a man with your heritage not be able to tap-dance." I heard Hawk's gliding chuckle. "My ancestors busy eating missionaries, boy.

If you can't be alone," Jesse said, "you can't be with someone.

Asking your husband to go one-on-one with Joe Broz is like putting a guppy in the piranha pool. If we don't find him before Broz does, he'll be eaten alive.

Then why don't you get married?" "I'm not sure. Mostly it's a question of how we'd affect each other, I suppose. Would

Ten minutes out of the city I made Hawk stop the car and I threw up on the side of the road. When I got back in the car Hawk said, "You shot Leo to protect those whores." I nodded. "Had to be done," Hawk said. "I know." "You'll feel better in a while," Hawk said. "Better than Leo," I said.

You think I'm deeply disturbed?" Susan said. "Yes," I said. She nodded. "Yes," she said. "I think you're right." Then

I was sitting with the girl of my dreams on a bench in the Boston Public Garden watching the swan boats circle the little lagoon.

For David Parker and Daniel Parker, with the respect and admiration of their father, who grew up with them.

I got thrown out of school several weeks in my senior year being caught in the girls' dorm. This was 1954, friends. The girls' dorm was off limits. Even to girls, I think.

It was not just that Ross Macdonald taught us how to write; he did something much more, he taught us how to read, and how to think about life, and maybe, in some small, but mattering way, how to live.

For David Parker and Daniel Parker, with the respect and admiration of their father, who grew up with them.

It's tempting to say the Ph.D. didn't have an effect, but it's not so. I think whatever resonance I may be able to achieve is in part simply from the amount of reading and learning that I acquired along the way.

Yeah. Floyd is his batman." His what?" Batman, like in the British army, each officer had a batman, a personal servant." You spend too much time reading, Spenser. You know more stuff that don't make you money than anybody I know.

Has anyone ever told you," I said, "that you coalesce reality?" "No. They only say that I'm good in the sack." "They are accurate but limited," I said. "And if you give me their names I'll kill them.

I took my .38 out and looked to see that there were bullets in all the proper places. I knew there would be, but it did no harm to be careful. And I'd seen Clint Eastwood do it once in the movies.

I heard somebody define heaven once," she said, looking at Pearl, "as a place where, when you get there, all the dogs you ever loved run to greet you.

Both our opinions are rooted in our experience," I said. "Both of them are true, it's just that we've had different experiences.

The key to growing up well, is being tough enough.

You do the best you can and you deal with the consequences. It's all there is.