Quotes from Lisa Lutz

When I was 6, I learned where I came from, which was one step removed from the usual circumstances. I was adopted.

We are all a mess of contradictions; some of our traits work for us, some against us.

While I had no intention of ending the series after 'The Spellmans Strike Again,' I did close many doors in that book and, with the fifth one, I was opening a lot of doors and not finding anything behind them and then opening another door and another until I found something. It was a while before I found my stride.

What's her name?" "None of your business." "That can't possibly be her name.

If I were one of the three viable presidential candidates, I doubt I'd be too broken up about someone looking into my passport file. Go ahead look, I'd say. It's the passport photo I wouldn't want anyone getting his hands on.

Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn't quite as spectacular.

Milo refreshed Rae's drink and said, Talk to her. You need to get it off your chest." Then Milo turned to me and said, "Why don't you try a more subtle approach." "I demand you tell me your troubles," I said to my sister. "You're not as funny as you think you are," Rae replied.

I refuse to have a life partner who spends his days pretending to be on a BBC show.

I was angry, but I was also tired and devastated by the idea that I would have to spend another four hours trying to reassemble some obnoxious feel-good movie that had done nothing but make me feel bad. I did what any tough, self-reliant, overburdened, sleep-deprived, seasoned investigator would do: I cried.

the best way to hide in plain sight was to get fat.

You know what I'm thinking?' Maggie said. I had no idea. 'Nope,' David replied. Apparently David didn't know either. Maggie turned to me with pleading eyes.'Our babysitter has the flu.' 'I'm sorry to hear that,' I replied. Dead silence. I honestly had no idea what Maggie was getting at, so I misread the silence. 'It's not serious, I hope,' I said sympathetically.

If you have enough unanswered questions, you have a certifiable mystery, and those are impossible to resist.

The latter. She had a good run," Sook said, doing a little shrug. It was his usual response to death at Mapleshade, and it was a safe bet that he felt that way about himself. Like most twice-widowed, Korea-vet, nature-loving, gun-enthusiast, bilingual, weed-connoisseur great grandfathers of five, he'd lived a full life.

Sometimes fear and dread are superior to tedium.

She asked how I liked my tea and I told her with cream and sugar (but really, I like my tea to be coffee)

What was she like in the end? The way most people are at the end. Scared and full of regret. The way you are all of the time.

It's not like I didn't think I had any demons. I did, but I could name them- and even provide an address and telephone number for each. As far as I was concerned, those demons could go to therapy instead of me.

Mrs. Chandler shouted after us, "And I hope that was all-natural food coloring you put on my dog!

It's always good to go home.

The problem isn't reading Ayn Rand, it's liking her.

Men are so easily drawn to fake things.

Everyone should know what it's like to get a C.

I was recently cautioned about some 'difficult' characters in a work-in-progress, and I was surprised at first to hear them labeled as such. On second glance, there was nothing more difficult about them than anyone I know. But in a book you are privy to an interior world which exposes the uglier parts that in life we get to hide. Arguably, all characters should be somewhat unlikable.

I tried not to think of Uncle Ray as being gone forever. I just liked to imagine him on one really long Lost Weekend.