Quotes About Understanding

Deborah was the only person on earth who knew what I really was, and even though she was still getting used to the idea, I had thought she understood the very careful boundaries set up by Harry, and understood, too, that I would never cross them.

I said nothing. After all, you really should understand a remark before you respond to it, and I didn't. Clearly Jackie was in a philosophical mood—but whether the evening would turn toward Aristotle or existentialism, I couldn't tell from her comment on Benny's Normalness. And as the best philosophers will tell you, the rest is silence anyway, so I kept quiet.

At least you can be grateful," Brian said, "that I am not the type who insists on saying, told you so." "Didn't you just say it?" I asked him. "Nobody's perfect," he said, and put the car in gear. "What now?

Cody and Astor exchanged another of their eloquent looks, in which no sound was made but a great deal was said. "Mom," Astor said, "we're playing with our new sister." She said it as if it were in quotation marks, so Rita couldn't possibly object. But Rita was an old hand at the game, and she shook her head.

My story is simple, straightforward, and unassailable. I learned

Hey," Robert said. "Aren't you supposed to say 'what up' or something?" Renny stared at Robert with his head tilted, one eyebrow raised and one lowered. "You gonna teach me how to talk black, Robert?" he said. "Damn, that's great; I been wanting to learn that.

could have said that the best way to catch a psycho motherfucker is by understanding what makes him a psycho motherfucker, but I doubted that Deborah would be very receptive to that message right now. Besides, it wasn't really true. Based on my years of experience in the business, the best way to catch a killer is by getting lucky.

Rita sighed and smiled happily. "Anyway," she said again, and I had to agree.

THERE ARE MANY ASPECTS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE that I will never understand, and I don't just mean intellectually. I mean that I lack the ability to empathize, as well as the capacity to feel emotion.

For some quixotic reason, Deborah had studied French in high school, and for a few seconds she apparently thought it was going to help her understand the man. She watched him as he raced through several paragraphs, and then finally shook her head. "Je nais comprend—Goddamn it, I can't remember how to say it. Dexter, get somebody up here to translate." The

I know very well that we all feel sexual urges, to one degree or another, even those of us in the Dark Brotherhood. It may be the most basic and pervasive piece of the human clock; we all tick toward sex. But the hands move at different speeds for all of us, and the thing that sets off the chimes is almost always unique. Even so, this was well outside the range even of my understanding. I could not remember seeing something quite this uniquely lustful.

Perhaps that was part of my strange liking for Astor and Cody. Because I did like them, and that made no sense to me. I know what I am and I understand many things about myself. But one of the few character traits that genuinely mystifies me is my attitude toward children. I like them. They are important to me. They matter.

One of the few eternal truths about humans is that if someone says they aren't sleeping, they're not rich, or they're not drunk, they almost certainly are. But telling them so when they deny it is thankless, unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous. So I just smiled understandingly at Rita. "Of course you're not," I said. "So why do we have to move because Lily Anne is getting so big?

There comes a point in every conversation where at least one of the people involved has to know what is being talked about, and I decided that point had arrived.

And, apparently, extremely effective. "All right," she said, and she actually squeezed my hand. "I won't say anything." I

Well, come on, Debs," I said, and I admit I was a little peevish. "You knew this would happen, and it happened, so why should it bother you?" She

have to know, he thought. I have to get out there and talk to people and see for myself. But there's nothing I can do now, and, dammit, I need some sleep.

You must always remember to check beneath the layers of things to find the truth.

I encourage everyone who works with children to remember to occasionally pause and try to think like a child. I think you'll be glad you did.

The wife's list, no matter how long or short, communicates to the husband, I don't like you. I don't accept you. But if you perform the way I think you should, then I will like and accept you. And no matter how long the husband's list may be, it says in like manner to his wife, I don't like you either. But if you stop caring about things so much, if you stop feeling the way you feel and noticing the things you notice, then I will accept and like you.

There is one advantage to realizing that you're never going to get it right: you do begin to stop expecting everyone else to get it right too, which makes for less frustration when other people turn out to be just as human as you are.

eager' and 'anxious' aren't the same, or how 'disinterested' doesn't mean 'uninterested.

Always thinking. This was one of the reasons he loved her.

That's what happens in love. In the shaded portions where the two spheres of different lives meet, certain fundamentals—moods, loves, fears, angers—can't be hidden. That's the contract.