Jessica Martinez Quotes & Sayings

Richard would freak if I smoked in the apartment. He kind of thinks I quit last year. I did quit last year, I just still occasionally need a cigarette. Like a few times a day. — Jessica Martinez

He's kind of cute,' Charly said. She was still sideways on the couch, face-planted in throw pillows. 'You should go for him. He has that same serious, never-say-what-I'm-thinking thing as you. You guys would be perfect together. You could just sit around being broody together. — Jessica Martinez

I wait. I don't know how long it will take his reproductive organs to decide life is worth living again, but I'm stuck here until they do. — Jessica Martinez

Lots of things could kill you. Fire. Ice. Why not sadness? — Jessica Martinez

The conversation is too mind-numbing, so I devote my attention to fiddling with the fancy backseat temperature controls instead. There's only so much I can do with those, though, so I move on to messing with the windows, which are much more entertaining. I'm trying to get both right and left sides to stop exactly halfway at exactly the same time, the right coming from the top and the left coming from the bottom, when Annie tells me to knock it off and presses the child lock button. — Jessica Martinez

He's looking at me. I can feel his eyes from across the yard, where he's losing a game of croquet to his niece, Piper. He's only pretending to try, I think, but it's hard to tell because I'm definitely not looking at him. — Jessica Martinez

It's only November, and I can't remember the last time I was warm. If someone had a gun to my head and was forcing me to choose between braving the five-minute walk to Soupe au Chocolat and murdering a kitten, I'd have to think long and hard. I'd probably end up under the frozen cafe awning, but only because I want to play Emilio's mandolin more than anything else in the world right now, and I don't even know where to find a kitten. In Miami they're everywhere, but here, I think they've all been murdered by the cold already. — Jessica Martinez

I don't know a thing about jazz."
"That's okay." He pulled me toward the door and opened it. "You know music. Jazz will explain itself. — Jessica Martinez

That's to British," I countered.
"What is?"
"Making sweeping generalizations about Americans because that makes you feel better about having a national inferiority complex the size of the Atlantic Ocean. I was just trying to be helpful, but if folding your pizza threatens you sense of patriotism, you probably shouldn't do it. — Jessica Martinez

For all her cute-as-a-button-ness, Bree had a laugh that reminded me of the noise Charly had made that time she shredded her fingertips on the cheese grater. — Jessica Martinez

He probably hadn't written it. I knew that. I certainly hadn't written mine. But after yesterday, his pompous sneer was permanently imprinted on my brain, and I could just picture him sitting at a computer and stringing together sentences like, "His golden tone and tender touch have moved audiences across the continent to tears." I was half-surprised it didn't claim his vibrato could cure cancer. — Jessica Martinez

I have to close my eyes as the flavors burst in my mouth - gentle heat from the pepper, salty tang of the pork, sweetness of pomegranate, the velvety-rich walnut sauce. He's waiting, but I don't know what to say. 'I love you; can I have your babies' might scare him, but it's my most sincere thought. — Jessica Martinez

The violin wasn't alive. It wasn't a baby or an animal, not living.
But that would be easier to believe if I hadn't felt it breathe and sing. — Jessica Martinez

He laughed. 'I thought you said you weren't scared of her.'
'I said I wasn't nervous, and I'm not nervous because I know not to do anything stupid, like make out, for example, in front of my grandma.'
'My fingers touching your fingers is making out? — Jessica Martinez

He'd said all the right things today. He'd been exactly who I needed him to be, dug through all the layers to get to me. Why couldn't he really be that guy? — Jessica Martinez

How about I give you a hin instead?"
"Sure. I'm sure a hint's all I need anyway."
"You think you're pretty smart then?" he said, his voice somewhere between playful and cocky.
"I only have to be smarter than you think I am, right?"
"...well now I'm in a position where I have to make it impossibly hard if I don't want to insult you. That wasn't smart at all."
"Oh, wow, just give me the hint already. — Jessica Martinez

I'm going to be late. I get home exactly sixteen minutes before my shift starts, which only gives me six minutes to get it together and get out the door. By get it together I mean calm the freak down, because I'm jittery and spastic and acting, as Mo would say, like a squirrel on crack. — Jessica Martinez

I like the scars because I like the stories. Bravery, stupidity, pain - none of them come free. — Jessica Martinez

She blinks long. Long. Like a prayer-blink. — Jessica Martinez

I look over at Satan's Cat in the corner, and of course she starts it again. She widens her eyes. I sigh loudly, but not enough to deter her. Another staring contest. This is probably somewhere around our fifteenth in two days. It goes like this. Satan's Cat stares into my eyes. I stare into Satan's Cat's eyes. After a few minutes I get freaked out and jump off the couch, usually screaming the same string of trilingual curse words as before because she has the most terrifying eyes in the world. They're amber with long black flecks in them that look like slivers, and I swear after about thirty seconds they start spinning like pinwheels and she's actually grinning at me the whole time - EVEN THOUGH CATS CAN'T GRIN! - probably because she knows she's stretching her evil out and into my brain. Demonic ocular poisoning. I'd Google it if I weren't so afraid of what I'd see. Whatever. Maybe this time I'll win. — Jessica Martinez

When does she leave again?' He'd taken my hand now and was drawing me into him.
I pulled back but let him keep holding it. 'One week. Maybe we should go over appropriate topics of conversation.'
'Right, because otherwise I might bring up my career as a porn star or those years I spent in juvie. — Jessica Martinez

Lame. Fine, work on your mural. I'll go suck on a Froot Loop or something. Or maybe I'll just eat straight sugar. Yeah, I'll do that."
"Good-bye, Mo."
"A raisin. We probably have raisins. I'm sure nature's candy will hit the spot. — Jessica Martinez

You live in your own world, don't you?" he says.
"What do you mean?" He says it like it's not an insult, but I've heard too many versions of the same comment to take it any other way. Spacey, dazed, out of it - this is how people see me. I should be used to it.
"I mean you seem like you're thinking hard about things that aren't in this room. — Jessica Martinez

I could feel myself shrinking. I couldn't move, not even to blink or breathe. Soon I'd be nothing at all. — Jessica Martinez

That church . . . it reminds me of one in downtown Chicago. Do you remember? That beautiful one with the courtyard near the Drake."
Jeremy took a newspaper from a stack behind him and sat across from me. "I know the one you're talking about, but that church," he gestured out the window, "is older than America."
I sighed. "Of course it is. Did I really just try to compare British and American architecture? How insensitive of me. — Jessica Martinez

Not being heard was my goal for the night. Dr. Kinzer's constant advice was 'Blend, Amelia, blend!' but what she really meant was 'Lip-sync, Amelia, lip-sync! — Jessica Martinez

Cute kid. Dimples, curls, he's like a male Shirley Temple. — Jessica Martinez

Yeah? What're you planning?"
"She nixed the keg and the strippers, so I don't know. Maybe we'll have a bonfire and torch some furniture. — Jessica Martinez

We watch the chef slice eel and octopus, delicate operations of dismemberment and amputation. For some reason it makes me think of poetry. — Jessica Martinez

And where's my ring?

She laughs, drops her fists in her lap. 'Your Ring? Where's my ring? And why aren't you down on one knee?'

Because I'm driving and because you're the one who asked me. Everybody knows the asker supplies the jewelry.

'Everybody knows? You made that up- how would everybody know? The guy always buys the ring.'

Moneys tight. How about Junior Mints and a Coke instead?

'Deal,' she says. — Jessica Martinez