Quotes from Jim Thompson

He had never before realized the blessedness of silence - the freedom to be silent, rather, if one chose. He had never realized, somehow, that such blessedness might be his privilege. He was Doc Mc Coy, and Doc Mc Coy was born to the obligation of being one hell of a guy.

Screw you! I'm not going to tell you what I was going to say because I'm a decent woman. But if I wasn't, you know what I'd say? You know what I'd do to you, you rotten son-of-a-bitch? I'd heist a leg and pee in your ear until it washed out that stinking pile of crap you call brains!

If the Good Lord made a mistake in us people it was in making us want to live when we've got the least excuse for it.

That was the way one had to do. To do the best one could, and accept things as they were. Usually, they did not seem so bad after a while; if they were not actually good, then they became so by virtue of the many things that were worse. Almost everything was relatively good. Eating was better than starving, living better than dying

that crutch hadn't done her rear end any harm. If you saw it by itself, you might have thought it belonged to a Shetland pony. But

That's what she keeps you around for, to diddle her fiddle. Because you're low-hung and she's high-strung!

I figure sometimes that maybe that's why we don't make as much progress as other parts of the nation. People lose so much time from their jobs in lynching other people, and they spend so much money on rope and kerosene and getting likkered-up in advance and other essentials, that there ain't an awful lot of money or man-hours left for practical purposes.

You don't need proof, know what I mean? Not from what I've seen of the law in operation. All you need is a tip that a guy is guilty. From then on, unless he's a big shot, it's just a matter of making him admit it.

Judging by her reaction (and what else was there to judge by?) he had managed the interview very well.

No me atrevería a decir que te equivocas, aunque tampoco podría darte la razón.

He was thinking that the cities, perhaps, needed to look into the future even more than the country did. They should look ahead for forty, eighty, one hundred and sixty years, to a strong and healthy plain of population - or to an overworked, weakened, underfed, and infertile desert.

Néha úgy vélem, épp emiatt nem haladunk úgy, mint a nemzet többi része. Az emberek olyan sok idÅ't töltenek távol a munkájuktól mások meglincselése miatt, és olyan sok pénzt költenek kötélre meg kerozinra, meg arra, hogy elÅ'zetesen leigyák magukat, meg a többi szükséges dologra, hogy a gyakorlati dolgokra nem marad se túl sok pénz, se munkaóra.

He had to hate them, to move the smothering shroud of hatred from himself to them. He closed the door of his room behind him, and almost snatched the drink from under the bed.

I ain't saying you're a liar, because that wouldn't be polite. But I'll tell you this, ma'am. If I loved liars, I'd hug you to death.