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Quotes About Tension

This place is so Cambridge," Susan said, "it gives me goose bumps." "Cambridge give you goose bumps?" I said to Hawk. "Hives," Hawk said.
~ 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.
~ Robert B. Parker
As she reached the landing, the thunder came. The whole house seemed to shake with it.
~ Robert Bloch
Besides, that thing was waiting for him. Waiting for him—
~ Robert Bloch
But meanwhile he had to do something about the way his heart pounded.
~ Robert Bloch
Norman Bates heard the noise and a shock went through him. It sounded as though somebody was tapping on the windowpane. He looked up, hastily, half prepared to rise, and the book slid from his hands to his ample lap. Then he realized that the sound was merely rain. Late afternoon rain, striking the parlor window.
~ Robert Bloch
Comedy and horror are opposite sides of the same coin.
~ Robert Bloch
The fight must so have seemed in that fell cirque, What penned them there, with all the plain to choose? No footprint leading to that horrid mews, None out of it. Mad brewage set to work Their brains, no doubt, like galley-slaves the Turk Pits for his pastime, Christians against Jews.
~ Robert Browning
She tumbles into a corner of the terrace and cowers there, whimpering, pale and terrified, as the caretaker's son, breathing heavily, back stooped and buttocks tensed, circles her, prepared to spring.
~ Robert Coover
They were about to go to war with Uncle Sam. And it broke their hearts.
~ Robert Coram
The buzz cut and his friend came over. "You are coming with us." The buzz cut spoke the words with a careful, starched pronunciation that made me think of Arnold Schwarzenegger, only the accent was Russian. "Sez who?" I can slay 'em with these comebacks.
~ Robert Crais
Jack met Kwan's eyes, glanced away, then looked back. Jack nodded once, kind of like saying hi, but Kwan did not respond. His lean face was all planes and angles, and as warm as a granite mask. He also had a split lip and a heavy purple bruise on his cheek from the guards. Jack
~ Robert Crais
Amber tried to pull away, but couldn't. "Let go! Lemme go! You can't—" I ignored her and focused on Tyson. "Is anyone here besides you and Amber?" Tyson stood mute, eyes unnaturally wide, too scared to answer. Amber thrashed pretty good.
~ Robert Crais
Ramos nodded, then glanced back at me. His eyes were the hard, bright eyes of a feral desert dog smelling blood. "Harlan
~ Robert Crais
She spoke in a fast rush. "Can't talk. Meet me in forty minutes. Say where." Forty minutes. Not half an hour or an hour. Forty. Like we were Ukrainian spies. We
~ Robert Crais
Mills paced to the door, but didn't leave, as if he had needed motion to contain himself. "I
~ Robert Crais
Scott parked in plain view by a gnarled podocarpus tree, nose to nose with the Jeep. He tucked the suspect sketch into his pocket, got out, and went to the edge of the slope. Cole and his buddies were watching him like three crows on a fence. A rumpled black cat with a crooked ear was watching him, too. The cat's eyes were hateful. Cole
~ Robert Crais
Karbo and Bender continued talking, but Pike sensed something off in how they related to each other. Karbo flashed a perfunctory smile and Bender seemed uncomfortable. Their handshake had been businesslike, and they stood a step too far apart. They seemed more like strangers who were meeting for the first time than friends who would commit a spur-of-the-moment abduction.
~ Robert Crais
Tyson's mother worked as an office manager for a law firm in Encino. She appeared neat, trim, and ready for work when she opened the door, but carried herself with so much tension she might have been wrapped with duct tape.
~ Robert Crais
Pike stepped into the first bay and spotted the man from the Monte Carlo in an office at the rear of the building. He was in front of a television with his back to the door. The Dodgers were playing a day game. Pike checked to see that the other two men were still struggling with the fender, then slipped toward the office as silently as a fish gliding through water. On
~ Robert Crais
Hess said, "What the fuck?" I said, "Temperamental." SACs aren't used to being cut off. I touched her arm. "We
~ Robert Crais
Pike tapped Jon's leg, and Jon rolled on, cruising back to their cars. Everything moved quickly after their brief reconnoiter, which was how Pike liked it. Speed was good. In armed confrontations, speed was the difference between life and death. Cole
~ Robert Crais
a cop shouted our location to the people on the road. Krantz wasn't holding a gun, but his eyes were on Pike as if he were a down-range target. I expected him to start with our rights, or tell us we were under arrest, or maybe even gloat, but he didn't.
~ Robert Crais
Grebner shuffled warily to his feet. Pike turned him around, tied off his hands, then pushed him back to the floor. Grebner squinted at Pike, trying to read him, but saw only the mirrored surface of Pike's sunglasses—blue bug eyes in an expressionless face. Pike knew Grebner would find this unnerving. Like Walsh when she had him at Parker Center, he was psyching the edge.
~ Robert Crais