Quotes from Robert B. Parker

How about the wrong crowd," I said. "You getting in with them?" "Not much luck," Paul said. "I'm trying like hell, but the wrong crowd doesn't seem to want me." "Don't quit," I said. "You want something, you go after it. I was nearly thirty-five before I could get in with wrong crowd.

Because I love you," I said. "Because you are in my life like the music at the edge of silence.

Halfway through my steak I caught sight of myself in the mirror behind the bar. I looked like someone who ought to eat alone. I didn't look in the mirror again.

It is one of the secrets of happiness that you know which battles you can win and which you can't.

You have any suggestions, make them. I'm in charge but humble. No need to salute when you see me." Fraser said, "Mind if we snicker every once in a while behind your back?" "Hell, no," I said. "Everyone else does.

We split a bottle of Norman cider. Not everybody sells Norman cider by the bottle. "Has a European feel" Susan said. "That sounds terrific" I said. "Can I have one?" Susan grinned at me. "How did you ever get to be so big without growing up?" she said. "Iron self-control" I said.

Shopping is never over," Susan said. "It is merely suspended.

I liked the myth elements of Christmas. The way in which its origins reach back far beyond Jesus, to the rituals of people unknown to us. The celebration of the winter solstice. The coming of light in the darkest time.

Writer's block? I've never heard of a plumber complain about plumber's block.

The thing I like about Irish whiskey is that the more you drink the smoother it goes down. Of course that's probably true of antifreeze as well, but illusion is nearly all we have.

Thank you sir," she said. "I hope that your friend feels better soon." I shrugged. "The ways of the Lord" I said, "are often dark, but never pleasant.

The evening stretches out against the sky, I thought. Like a patient etherized upon a table. I grinned to myself. Live fast, die young, and have a literate corpse.

None of us offered to shake hands. There was no advantage to letting somebody get hold of you.

The room was amazing. It was all glass, including the domed roof, and in all directions it offered a view of the Atlantic Ocean stretching empty into the distance, hinting of eternity.

I headed straight into the setting sun, and rode west at an easy pace. It was going to be a long ride, and there was no reason to hurry.

After a while I got hungry and went to the kitchen. There was nothing to eat. I drank another beer and looked again, and found half a loaf of whole wheat bread behind the beer in the back of the refrigerator...

How the hell can you be liberated and accept alimony?" I said. Again the smile, innocent, beautiful, glorious, and satanic. "Exploit the oppressor," she said.

Colt makes a heavy firearm." - Virgil Cole

I always loved it when I had a story to tell her, because her attention was complete and felt like sunlight.

Too much positive is either scared or stupid or both. Reality is uncertain.

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.

If you are going to live life on your own terms, there need to be terms, and somehow you need to live up to them.

Joan organizes our social life, and on weekends I follow her around.

Send it to someone who can publish it. And if they won't publish it, send it to someone else who can publish it! And keep sending it! Of course, if no one will publish it, at that point you might want to think about doing something other than writing.