Quotes from Dennis Lehane

Do you know the primary difference between men and gods?" "No, sir." "Gods don't think they can become men.

The only people who ask questions like 'Did he want to be something besides a bartender?' are people who can become whatever they want. The rest of us are just Americans." The

conflate a narcissistic instinct for self-preservation with moral superiority.

she was forced to face how cold and unlike her fantasy her own marriage was? Or did she suddenly just get tired of living this long-ass life?" Joella

Why?" Rachel said (the eternal why, as she'd come to think of it). "Was he that bad?" "I never heard he was bad," Ann Marie said with a minor slur and a sad grimace. She looked out through the screen at the stone-colored mist in the gray hills and spoke with a firm finality. "Honey, I only heard that he'd moved on.

He feels that today he has developed a kinship with grief and trauma and nurses' asses.

He gave her a long, worried look, but cars were stacking up behind them and dusk was gathering. A horn blared. Then another. He handed her a business card—Kenny's Cabinets—and told her to call him anytime. She thanked him and got out of the minivan. As he drove away, she realized the van wasn't even red. It was bronze.

His heart stopped. His lungs. His brain. The circumnavigation of his blood.

Me, either. What

they had become the people her parents worked for. But they were better versions. And her parents, hungry as they were, would have expected no less. You couldn't fight the Haves. The only thing you could do was become them to such a degree that they came to you for what they had not.

A man is the stories he tells about himself, and most of those stories are lies. Never look too closely. If you uncover his lies, it'll humiliate you both. Best to just live with the bullshit.

Le dí un beso y ella me lo devolvió.

Ella dijo: -Él...Le has disparado, joder. Acabas de... O sea, ¿te das cuenta? Bob pasó la fregona por la mancha. -Le dió una paliza a mi perro.

Said, My whole fucking family, you believe that shit? A week ago we all in the pink, eating dinner 'round the table—my son and daughter-in-law, my daughter and son-in-law, three grandchildren, and Bess. Just sitting and eating and jawing. And then, then, it was like God Hisself reached through the roof and into their house and closed his hand 'round the whole family and squeezed. Like we was flies on the table, he said. Like that.

he would never, ever, get in the ocean again.... He could feel the age of it, more ancient than gods and prouder of its body count.

In Hell," she said, "someone's in charge.

I'm driving a stolen car On a pitch black night And I'm telling myself I'm gonna be alright.

Invecchiamo sotto gli occhi di tutti, pensò, ma siamo sempre gli ultimi a saperlo. da Ogni nostra caduta, 2017

That when a woman moves on, she doesn't look back, and I'm that woman.

Todo pasa. Tarde o temprano.

But lately he'd noticed an air of grace settling in his daughter. He wasn't sure where it had come from—some girls grew into womanhood gracefully, others remained girls their whole lives—but it was there in Katie all of a sudden, a peacefulness, a serenity even.

new micro-generation of substandard cops who think they can compensate for bad instincts, poor people skills, and limited intelligence with high-powered weaponry.

Your first family is your blood family and you always be true to that. That means something. But there's another family and that's the kind you go out and find. Maybe even by accident sometimes. And they're as much blood as your first family. Maybe more so, because they don't have to look out for you and they don't have to love you. They choose to." "So

She couldn't tell if the sadness in his smile stemmed from pity for her or if he just possessed a sad smile.