Jeff Lindsay Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Jeff Lindsay.
Famous Quotes By Jeff Lindsay
I was filled with dread at the thought my mind had skipped town and left me behind to pay the rent.
Dexter — Jeff Lindsay
AND NOW HERE I WAS IN THE LAP OF LUXURY, FAR FROM THE hooting and screeching and dirty socks of my normal domestic life. It probably wasn't fair to compare, of course, which was a good thing. This hotel made even my new, swimming-pooled house seem squalid - made my whole little life seem just a bit less bright and shiny. — Jeff Lindsay
There is nothing, no sound, and we are thinking very unhappy thoughts as we kneel down and perform our watery pantomime one more time. — Jeff Lindsay
The Dark Passenger had been very quiet through this whole thing so far, contenting himself with a disinterested smirk from time to time and offering no really cogent observations. — Jeff Lindsay
But in all truth, it didn't matter, not even a little bit. It was just one more of the dozens of dopey contradictions making up the many-sided mess that was humanity, and all things considered, it was much less interesting than thinking about what Rita might have cooked for dinner. — Jeff Lindsay
Hey," he said, and we all turned to look at him. Deke nodded at the floor. "The lady fainted," he said, and we all turned to look where he had nodded. Mrs. Aldovar, as advertised, was out cold on the floor. — Jeff Lindsay
When an intruder has paid a visit, in the natural course of events your things are gone: toys, valuables, private relics, the last few chocolate chip cookies. — Jeff Lindsay
Whatever," I said. "The point is, if it's a child small enough to throw, then she lost so much blood here she has to be dead." "She's eighteen years old," Debs said. "Almost nineteen." "Then assuming she's average size, I don't think we want to try to catch somebody who could throw her that hard. If you shoot him, he might get very annoyed and pull off your arms." Deborah — Jeff Lindsay
He had an AM radio playing a conservative talk show. The host was making some very interesting statements about the president. I don't usually pay much attention to politics, but from what the man said, I had to believe that sometime in the recent past the laws regarding sedition must have changed. — Jeff Lindsay
Baleen was a very pricey place that I would not have attempted on my own modest means. It has the kind of oak-paneled elegance that makes you feel the need for a cravat and spats. — Jeff Lindsay
Is that why you're crying?"
( ... ) "It's just hormones," she said. "I didn't want anyone to see."
I skipped over the image of anyone seeing her hormones and tried to focus on the heart of the matter. — Jeff Lindsay
I am a very good imitation, but I am not really a good person. I have done many very bad things, and I hope to live long enough to do many more. And to be completely objective, I almost certainly deserve all the things Hood and Doakes wanted to do to me. But while I wait for the long arm of the law to grab me by the neck, I also deserve to breathe air that is not fouled with the stench of unwashed and rotting dental apocalypse. I put a stiff index finger into Hood's sternum and pushed him away. For a moment he thought he was going to tough it out - but I had chosen my spot well, and he had to back off. "You can arrest me," I told Hood, "or you can follow me. Otherwise, get out of my way." I pushed a little harder and he had to take another step back. "And for God's sake, brush your teeth." Hood — Jeff Lindsay
Every writer must find a way of writing that tells the reader: This is me and no one else. The Voice can be idiosyncratic, but it cannot be obscure. It is a blend of style and content and intent and rhythm and pure personality. — Jeff Lindsay
It really is better to be lucky than to be good. — Jeff Lindsay
I am unlovable ... I have tried to involve myself in other people, in relationships, and even - in my sillier moments - in love. But it doesn't work. Something in me is broken or missing and sooner or later the other person catches me Acting or one of Those Nights comes along. — Jeff Lindsay
I think that's nice, and if I could have feelings at all I would have them for Deb. — Jeff Lindsay
What a frail thing a human being is - and without the Passenger, that is all I was, a poor imitation of a human being. Weak, soft, slow and stupid, unseeing, unhearing and unaware, helpless, hopeless, and harried. — Jeff Lindsay
It's that moon again, slung so fat and low in the tropical night, calling out across a curdled sky and into the quivering ears of that dear old voice in the shadows, the Dark Passenger, nestled snug in the backseat of the Dodge K-car of Dexter's hypothetical soul.
That rascal moon, that loudmouthed leering Lucifer, calling down across the empty sky to the dark hearts of the night monsters below, calling them away to their joyful playgrounds. — Jeff Lindsay
Everyone is so cheerful and happy," I said
"This isn't Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Dex. It's Miami. Only the bad guys are happy." She looked at me without expression, a perfect cop stare. "How come you're not laughing and singing?"
"Unkind, Deb. Very unkind. I've been good for months."
She took a sip of water. "Uh-huh. And it's making you crazy. — Jeff Lindsay
At some point, even the greatest misery begins to fade. Life, or what passes for life, plods on in it's own unending weary footsteps, and somehow we plod along with it, if we stay lucky. — Jeff Lindsay
Life would certainly be easier if we all came equipped with our own personal FAQ lists. When we meet someone, we could pass them a business card with the list on the back, and then step back and let them read before we tried to talk. — Jeff Lindsay
I felt as though someone had snuck in and packed my head with beach sand, even including the bottle caps and cigarette butts. — Jeff Lindsay
She looked up and ran her eyes over me,
slowly, while I stood and wondered why. Had she forgotten what I looked like? But she finished with a big smile. She really did like me, the idiot. — Jeff Lindsay
I do the math. On one side: Anderson, the entire police force, the media, and most likely the pope himself. On the other side, my innocence. This does not add up to a terribly encouraging bottom line. — Jeff Lindsay
answered the phone; it was, in fact, the Times - the Los Angeles one. Jackie took the call, and by the time I could get unhooked from my homicidal seat belt and turned around to look, there was nothing to see except the usual mad, gleaming pack of angry, overpowered vehicles. I scanned in all directions a couple of times, but I saw no cycles, and I heard no more popping backfire sounds. So I shrugged it off before we were even halfway to work, and thought no more about motorcycles. — Jeff Lindsay
As I spun higher and faster and even more replete with every possible happiness, a great slamming sound rolled across me and I opened my eyes in a small dark room with no windows and a very hard concrete floor and walls and no idea of where it was or how I got there. A single small light burned above the door, and I was lying on the floor in the dim glow it cast. The happiness was gone, all of it, and nothing welled up to replace it other than a sense that wherever I might be, nobody had in mind restoring either my joy or my freedom. — Jeff Lindsay
Of course it was a terrible thing, and the world would be a much better place without someone in it who could do that, but did that mean we had to miss lunch? — Jeff Lindsay
My car is right over here," Kraunauer said, steering me toward a modest-looking gray sedan with a stylized letter "B" on each hubcap. And in spite of that, it wasn't until I opened the door and saw the walnut-lined instrument panel and soft glove-leather seats that I realized the "B" stood for "Bentley." I slid onto the sweet-smelling seat and tried not to soil it by sweating or thinking impure thoughts. — Jeff Lindsay
Have you ever noticed that every now and then you'll overhear an amazingly clear declarative sentence when you're out in public, spoken with such force and purpose that you absolutely yearn to know what it means, because it is just so forceful and crystalline? And you want to follow along behind whoever just spoke, even though you don;t know them, just to find out what that sentence means and how it would affect the lives of the people involved? — Jeff Lindsay
But a very large piece of my carefulness had always been listening to the subtle whisperings of the Dark Passenger, and it was still being strangely shy about sharing its thoughts. — Jeff Lindsay
Dexter-Land is a dark and scary place, and I couldn't live there permanently. To be honest, I don't think I even want to visit. — Jeff Lindsay
... Dexter the sofa spud ... — Jeff Lindsay
A man can take only so much. Even a phony man like me. — Jeff Lindsay
No," Hood said. He leaned over me to the desk and the odor of unwashed detective overlaid with cheap cologne almost made me gag. Hood scooped up the photos and straightened as he stuffed them back into the envelope. With Hood a few feet away from me once more, I managed to breathe again, and since my curiosity was coming to a boil, I used the breath for something practical. "They're all very nice pictures," I said. "But so what? — Jeff Lindsay
The first rejection that 'Dexter' got, I was like, 'OK. This hasn't worked. Let's try something else. I'll go get a teaching job or something.' — Jeff Lindsay
It's a mistake to think that Dexter is nice. — Jeff Lindsay
Squared away, oh yes, a completely Harry idea of how life is lived, with hospital corners and polished shoes. And even then I knew; needing to kill something every now and then would pretty much sooner or later get in the way of being squared away. — Jeff Lindsay
The more I heard it in my thoughts, the
more sense it made. And beyond sense, it became a kind of seductive mantra. — Jeff Lindsay
I took a moment to recover, and then, just to be safe, I looked inside the Dumpster. There didn't seem to be anything else inside except garbage, which I thought was a very positive development. I hoisted myself up onto the closed side and, looking once more toward the mouth of the alley to make sure nobody was watching, I reached up and touched the window. I pushed at it and it rattled ever so slightly. Good news: That meant it was not nailed shut, or sealed by too many years of sloppy paint jobs. I — Jeff Lindsay
At nineteen, I certainly didn't know the answer, although I already knew more about death than most of the other pimple-ridden pudding heads in my sophomore class at the University of Miami. — Jeff Lindsay
In truth, I would have said anything to make LaGuerta take me to the rink. I wanted to go to the arena very badly. I wanted to see this body stacked in the net on the ice more than anything else I could think of, wanted to undo the neat wrapping and see the clean dry flesh. I wanted to see it so much that I felt like a cartoon of a dog on point, wanted to be there with it so much that I felt self-righteous and possessive about the body. — Jeff Lindsay
And if so, I could fill my time with the new entry on my rather exclusive social register, whoever had created the Howling Vegetable of N.W. 4th Street, and the fact that this sounded rather like a Sherlock Holmes title made it no less urgent. — Jeff Lindsay
What the fuck, Dexter," Deborah said accusingly, as if it were my fault the two blood types were different. "I'm sorry," I said, not at all sure what I was apologizing for, but quite certain from her tone of voice that I should. — Jeff Lindsay
It's like, everything really is two ways, the way we all pretend it is and the way it really is — Jeff Lindsay
Hurray - I was someone else. I was not completely crazy yet. Seriously antisocial, of course, and somewhat sporadically homicidal, nothing wrong with that. But not crazy. — Jeff Lindsay
My conscience has the same hard reality as a unicorn. — Jeff Lindsay
Miami drivers have long ago take the simple chore of going from one place to another and turned it into a kind of high-speed, heavily armed game of high-stakes bumper cars. — Jeff Lindsay
There are millions of homeless children in the world - which proved again that kids were a low-value commodity, didn't it? I mean, there are very few homeless Bentleys in the world. — Jeff Lindsay
And I was having too much fun to stop now. — Jeff Lindsay
I did not like this feeling of having feelings. — Jeff Lindsay
He smirked at me. "Channel Hog," he said. "Biggest goddamned hammerhead shark known to man. Over twenty feet long, and always hungry. I truly would not recommend taking a swim out there, buddy. — Jeff Lindsay
And as always seems to happen when I have reached the point where I am ready to take decisive action, everything began to happen at once. — Jeff Lindsay
Dexter is modest, even self-effacing, and certainly aware of the limits of his considerable talent. But if there was a limit to what I could discover on the computer, I had not found it yet. I sat back down and went to work. — Jeff Lindsay
Perhaps I should call the Guinness Book people. I wondered what the world record was for not being sure whether you committed a string of murders? — Jeff Lindsay
Of course I had. That's how I do it. — Jeff Lindsay
My story is simple, straightforward, and unassailable. I learned — Jeff Lindsay
It was always hard work to push through a crowed of reporters with the scent of blood in their nostrils. You might not think so, since on camera they appear to be brain-damaged wimps with severe eating disorders. But put them at a police barricade and a miraculous thing happens ... The strength comes from some mysterious place-and somehow, when there is gore on the ground, these anorexic creatures can push their way through anything. Without mussing their hair, too. — Jeff Lindsay
Why do so many people start their messages with, "It's me"? Of course it is you. We all know that. But who the hell ARE you? — Jeff Lindsay
DEBORAH DROVE US SOUTH ON DIXIE HIGHWAY. YES, I did say "us." To my surprise, I had become a valuable member of the Justice League and was informed that I was being honored with the opportunity to put my irreplaceable self in harm's way. — Jeff Lindsay
And then more quiet, silence so deep it almost drowned out the roar of the night music that pounded away in my secret self. — Jeff Lindsay
I waved to everybody. Some of them
even waved back. They knew me, had seen me go by before, always cheerful, a big hello for everybody. He was such a nice man. Very friendly. I can't believe he did those horrible things ... — Jeff Lindsay
God, it's like I have something, deep down inside of me, that i think is undeserving of love. — Jeff Lindsay
carpe diem." "What?" "It's Latin," I said. "It means, complain in daylight. — Jeff Lindsay
You're home!" she said as she rushed through the front door. "Because I have some wonderful news, and I have to - Cody, don't just throw your jacket there; hang it up on the - Astor, for God's sake, don't slam the door like that. Here, take the baby," she said to me, thrusting Lily Anne in my direction and turning away again so rapidly that I had to lurch forward to grab the baby, spilling a quarter of a cup of coffee as I did. Rita — Jeff Lindsay
Money to me had always been merely something the sheep used to show each other how wonderful they were. — Jeff Lindsay
I have always embraced this concept, and it paid off now, as Meza proved to be wonderfully creative in both Spanish and English. He ran through an impressive list of standards, and then his artistic side took full flower and he called me things that had never before existed, except possibly in a parallel universe designed by Hieronymus Bosch. The performance took on an added air of supernatural improbability because Meza's voice was so weak and husky, but he never allowed that to slow him. I was frankly awed, and Deborah seemed to be, too, because we both simply stood and listened until Meza finally wore down and tapered off with, Cocksucker. — Jeff Lindsay
Sociopaths don't have feelings; they can't. — Jeff Lindsay
If that had indeed been ecstasy, I would have to agree. I would also have to say that either we had taken far too much, or it was a very powerful drug. I could nearly blush myself when I remembered what I had said and done. Trying to become a little more human was one thing - but this had been far over the edge into the sludge of dumb, yammer-headed personhood. Perhaps the stuff should be called excess-tasy. In retrospect, I was very glad there was a drug to blame. I did not like to think of myself as behaving like a cartoon. — Jeff Lindsay
But from the way she was looking at me now, I began to think that perhaps that had been a mistake. Human relationships, especially the whole Being Married Thing, were foreign territory for me. It was clear I should have called to say I would be late - but could the consequences really be this calamitous? Was — Jeff Lindsay
And when you came right down to it, the only purpose to life that I have ever been able to find is not to die. You couldn't let them push you out the door to go gentle into that good night. You had to rage, rage, and slam that door on the bastards' fingers. That was the contest - to delay the end of your personal match as long as you could. The point was not to win; you never did. Nobody can win in a game that ends with everybody dying - always, without exception. No, the only real point was to fight back and enjoy the combat. And by gum, I would. — Jeff Lindsay
And yet, I hope. This cannot continue eternally, can it? Something must someday happen. It is not possible that I should be a permanent fixture here, on the ninth floor of TGK, perpetually repeating the same small and meaningless rituals by rote. Someone — Jeff Lindsay
If you look at Victorian England, being a soldier was considered a noble profession. — Jeff Lindsay
The couch was apparently built on the same principle as a Venus flytrap, because when I sat I was immediately sucked down into a deep plush cushion, and as I struggled to remain upright it occurred to me that this was on purpose, another silly little trick Acosta used to dominate people, like putting his desk in front of the bright window. Deborah apparently came to the same conclusion, because I saw her tighten her jaw, and pull herself forward with a jerk to perch awkwardly on the edge of the couch. — Jeff Lindsay
I don't know if you have noticed this, but it is quite possible for two human beings to have a conversation in which one or both parties involved has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. — Jeff Lindsay
Rita was almost as badly damaged as I am. — Jeff Lindsay
The whole point of wearing a disguise was to be seen wearing her. — Jeff Lindsay
The students we saw were all bright, attractive, and polite, and the teachers all seemed to be smart and dedicated, and I began to appreciate the benefits of a private school education. If only I'd had the opportunity to attend a place like this, who knows what I might have become? Perhaps instead of a mere blood-spatter analyst who slunk away at night to kill without conscience, I could have become a doctor, or a physicist, or even a senator who slunk away at night to kill without conscience. It was terribly sad to think of all my wasted potential. — Jeff Lindsay
It took me a moment. I blinked, and suddenly it swam into focus and I had to frown very hard to keep myself from giggling out loud like the schoolgirl Deb had accused me of being.
Because he had arranged the arms and legs in letters, and the letters spelled out a single small word: BOO.
The three torsos were carefully arranged below the BOO in a quarter-circle, making a cute little Halloween smile.
What a scamp. — Jeff Lindsay
This whole business of telling the truth just never seems to work without some kind of awkward unpleasantness. — Jeff Lindsay
Nothing else loves me, nor ever will. Not even - especially - me. I know what I am and that's not a thing to love. — Jeff Lindsay
I think people understand things different when they get older. It's not a question of getting soft, or seeing things in the gray areas instead of black and white. I really believe I'm just understanding things different. Better. — Jeff Lindsay
Still a monster, of course, but I cleaned up nicely afterwards, and I was OUR monster, dressed in red, white, and blue 100 percent synthetic virtue. — Jeff Lindsay
I rose to my knees, mouth dry and heart pounding, and paused to finger a rip in my beautiful Dacron bowling shirt. I pushed my fingertip through the hole and wiggled it at myself. Hello, Dexter, where are you going? Hello, Mr. Finger. I don't know, but I'm almost there. I hear my friends calling. — Jeff Lindsay
So I finished my coffee, stood up, and went down the hall to the little room that Rita calls Dexter's Study. I sat and fired up my laptop, and as it started up I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to get back in touch with my Inner Tiger. Almost immediately I felt it stretch and purr and rise up to rub against my hand. Nice kitty, I thought with gratitude, and it showed me its fangs in a happily wicked smile. I smiled back, opened my eyes, and we went to work. First — Jeff Lindsay
A man who discovers his pants are on fire tends to have very little time to worry about somebody else's box of matches — Jeff Lindsay
She really did like me, the idiot. — Jeff Lindsay
This is no help," Debs said. "If it's not her blood in there, then ... who the hell flings somebody else's blood on the wall?" "A kidnapper," Special Agent Recht said. "Trying to cover his tracks." Deborah turned and looked at her, and the expression on her face was truly wonderful to see. With just a few rearranged facial muscles and one small raised eyebrow, Debs managed to say, How is it possible that someone this stupid can tie her own shoes and walk among us? — Jeff Lindsay
I smiled at her, my most comforting, challenging, I'm-not-really-a-shark smile. — Jeff Lindsay
I had become a perfect fake human, saying the stupid and pointless things that humans say to each other all day long. — Jeff Lindsay
Somehow I slogged through the gray soup of the rest of the day and made it all the way home to Rita's at the end of the day, where the soup gelled into an aspic of sensory deprivation. — Jeff Lindsay
In the afternoon, it's impossible to put down any new words. I don't even try. — Jeff Lindsay
When faced with people who have very limited conversational skills and no apparent desire to cultivate any it's always easier to simply go along. — Jeff Lindsay
A reasonable being might think that he and I could find some common ground; have a cup of coffee and compare our Passengers, exchange trade talk and chitchat about dismemberment techniques. But no: Doakes wanted me dead. And I found it difficult to share his point of view. — Jeff Lindsay
You can't know that." "But I do," she said. "I can feel it. Goddamn it, you think you're the only one with a voice inside? Samantha Aldovar is in there, and she is out of time. If we back off, they kill her and eat her. And if we take the time to go through channels and go in with SRT and all that, she disappears and she's dead. I know it. She's in there now, Dex. I got such a strong feeling; I've never been more sure about something." It — Jeff Lindsay