Drily Quotes & Sayings

I don't care. I want that one out. We can't afford a stampede. Find some polite way to get rid of him." Anderson pulls over another stack of paychecks waiting for his signature.
Hock Seng tries again. "Khun, negotiating with the union is a complicated thing."
"That's why I have you. It's called delegating." Anderson continues flipping the papers.
"Yes, of course." Hock Seng regards him drily. "Thank you for your management instruction. — Paolo Bacigalupi

Musicals are strictly for homosexuals and womenfolk, Kenny says drily, in a way that's so post-post-post-ironic it actually stops being communication, and simply becomes confusing and unhelpful. — Caitlin Moran

Mr Norrell determined to establish himself in London with all possible haste. "You must get a house, Childermass," he said. "Get me a house that says to those that visit it that magic is a respectable profession - no less than Law and a great deal more so than Medicine."
Childermass inquired drily if Mr Norrell wished him to seek out architecture expressive of the proposition that magic was as respectable as the Church?
Mr Norrell (who knew there were such things as jokes in the world or people would not write about them in books, but who had never actually been introduced to a joke or shaken its hand) considered a while before replying at last that no, he did not think they could quite claim that. — Susanna Clarke

I left it with a warmer, he said drily. Because war mages ate their fried chicken frozen to the ground and they liked it. — Karen Chance

What's the hardest part of being a teacher?" "Well, they basically have no filter. Whatever pops into their head comes right out of their mouths." "Sounds like Brent," he commented drily. — Tessa Bailey

You need to give me some answers. Like, now. I'm done with this bullshit excuse that nothing is different about you." "Swearing isn't ladylike." He responds drily, like that's the only thing I just said. I roll my eyes at his old ways and say just to annoy him, "Bullshit. I'm not a lady which you should know by now, dumbass." I can't believe it, but he actually lifts a corner of his mouth in an almost smile. — Inda Herwood

Most people don't have facades," Natalie said drily. "Oh everyone thinks they do, but when you dig below the facade, there is only more facade. — Lisa Kleypas

He remembered having said to his uncle (with a solemn dogmatism better befitting a much younger man): "Surely it is possible to love with the head as well as the heart." Mr. Delagardie had replied, somewhat drily: "No doubt; so long as you do not end by thinking with your entrails instead of your brain. — Dorothy L. Sayers

- The ballad of joking Jesus, Stephen answered.
- O, Haines said, you have heard it before?
- Three times a day, after meals, Stephen said drily.
- You're not a believer, are you? Haines asked . I mean, a believer in the narrow sense of the word. Creation from nothing and miracles and a personal God.
- There's only one sense of the word, it seems to me, Stephen said.

21 — James Joyce

Vig walked back to his truck. That's when Stieg drily asked, "Do you need another minute to blush coquettishly and dream about your perfect white wedding?"
As Vig walked around the front of his vehicle, he grabbed Stieg by the hair and slammed him face-first into the hood. — Shelly Laurenston

When she came back minutes later with a great, fat, skinned rabbit, Po had built a fire. The flames cast orange light on the horses and on himself. "It was the least I could do," Po said, drily, "and I see you've already skinned the hare. I'm beginning to think I won't have much responsibility as we travel through the forest together."
"Does it other you? You're welcome to do the hunting yourself. Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks, and scream if I hear strange noises. — Kristin Cashore

Ave! Duci novo, similis duci seneci",' murmured Mr Slant, drily as only a zombie can manage. 'Or, as we used to say at school, "Ave! Bossa nova, similis bossa seneca!"' He gave a little schoolmasterly laugh. He felt at home with dead languages. 'Of course, grammatically that is completely - ' 'And that means . . . ?' said Madam. 'Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss,' muttered Dr Follett. — Terry Pratchett

His eyes had that hooded quality that brought a flush to my cheeks. "That's a great list."
"What about you?" I asked. "What do you want to do when this is all over?"
"For real?" When I nodded, he lowered his head, dropping a quick kiss on the tip of my nose. "I can't believe you even have to ask that. I plan to be wherever you are."
My lips immediately curved into one of those big, funny-looking smiles as my heart swelled in my chest like an old-school cartoon character's. I was waiting for my eyes to turn into exaggerated hearts that popped out. "That is...that is the perfect answer."
"That's because I am perfect."
"Well, that wasn't the perfect answer," I said drily. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

Well, we can't sit around here worrying all night. I have to do something. "
"Why don't you call up another vampire hunter for tea?" he suggested drily. — Alyxandra Harvey

Storm happens to be a very argumentative young woman,' Jason said
drily, and Storm's eyes flashed. He smiled at her icily. 'People who are cursed with a quarrelsome disposition shouldn't start a fight without getting their facts right. It's a bad mistake, don't you think?'

'Certainly,' she retorted with frigid politeness. All her resolutions
about starting afresh with Jason flew to the winds. 'But people who have a lot of control over other people's lives should have some sense of responsibility, don't you think? — Madeleine Ker

Finding the stewardess, Bly asked her about the monkey. The stewardess replied drily, "We have met." Bly was now alarmed to see that the stewardess's arm was bandaged from wrist to shoulder."What did you do?" she asked. "I did nothing but scream," the stewardess replied; "the monkey did the rest. — Matthew Goodman

His smile turned into a grin. He looked down at his tray and shoveled rice onto his fork. "You guys hitting that party tonight?"
"Which one?" Becca said drily. "We try to make the circuit."
He smiled in a way that said he saw right through her. "Well - and I want to make sure I get this straight - Monica said Claire said her boyfriend's best friend's brother was home from college with that skank Melissa - "
"No," said Becca sharply. "We're not. — Brigid Kemmerer

-On creating a false identity for Pheobe-
"A widow," Ava insisted.
"How did her husband die?" Greer asked.
"I hardly know," Ava said with a shrug as she rocked Jonathan in her arms. "How do men typically die? A fall from a horse or some such thing."
"I scarcely believe scores of men are falling to their deaths from their saddles," Greer said drily. — Julia London

GARNET CITY LIMIT
POPULATION 3145
"There's bullet holes in that sign," Tino observed drily.
"There are," Romeo agreed, starting at the dents and holes in the green metal. "Those are bullet holes, no question."
"They shot their own friggin' sign." Tino turned to arch an eyebrow at Romeo. "What the hell are they gonna do to us. — Kele Moon

Alice?" She spun toward the door, her skirts whirling softly. "Yes?" she forced out. "Do you know what I am holding in my hand?" "No." "Care to guess?" "A pitchfork?" she asked in a stilted attempt at levity, hoping to invoke his earlier, playful mood. "No, my dear," he answered drily. "A key to your room." "What?"she breathed, aghast. "I should hate to have to use it." "You have a key to this room?" "Mm-hmm." She took a step toward the door, panic rising up in her throat. "You're bluffing!" "Do you wish me to prove it? — Gaelen Foley

How do you know it won't be duels at dawn when you tell him you've accepted my proposal of marriage?"
"Don't be ridiculous. He's not that hotheaded. Though I daresay he may try to ... er ... knock some sense into you. He and Jarret. And possibly Gabe."
"Our bargain is looking better and better all the time," he said drily. "I get to fight the Sharpe men while you stand around pretending to care." He came close enough to whisper, "I will definitely require a few kisses of you if that comes to pass, minx."
-Giles and Minerva — Sabrina Jeffries

No, Charlotte, I'm not going to tell him," I said drily. "The hymen of your integrity remains intact. Your precious jewel of a reputation is un-besmirched. — Robyn Schneider

What, no balloons?' Billi asked drily.
'You want balloons, join the circus. — Sarwat Chadda

I don't have any idea what to wear anymore, so I tried to cover all bases."
"Try skin."
"Little chilly for that."
We looked at each other across the coffee table.
His eyes didn't say, I'd heat you up, and mine didn't say What are you waiting for? He didn't reply, Fuck if I'm making the first move, so I was careful not to say, I wish you would, because I can't, because I'm ... and he didn't snap ... choking on your pride?!
"As if you aren't."
"Excuse me?"
"Really Barrons," I said drily. "I'm not the only one who didn't just not have that conversation, and you know it."
There was the faint, sexy lift of his lip. "You're a piece of work, Ms. Lane."
"Right back at you. — Karen Marie Moning

Dazed, Nick nodded, then looked to Caleb. "I'm such an effing idiot."
"We knew that," he said drily. "We definitely didn't have to throw you into a coma for that little-known nugget. — Sherrilyn Kenyon

He does possess a penetrating sense of humour. At the end of one briefing in Mexico, when Nigel Mansell had let the world know that he was suffering seriously from uncontrollable diarrhoea and needed to interrupt practice several times on this account, Prost drily asked Roland Bruynseraede, 'If Nigel has to come in during the race will you show a brown flag? — Sid Watkins

More flexible!" David said in near ecstasy.
"What can I say?" asked Genya drily. "He's a passionate man. — Leigh Bardugo

Hey, I'm still the walking wounded, you know," he protested.
"You were shot on the other side," Rosie said drily. "And since when do you and Dalton agree on anything?"
"We are men." Pip and Dalton straightened up. "We settle out differences through fighting and drink." He held up the fine crystal tumbler, then frowned at it. "Though maybe not in this kind of glass. — Lara Morgan

The fact is," said d'Uberville drily, "whatever your dear husband believed you accept, and whatever he rejected you reject, without the least inquiry or reasoning on your own part. That's just like you women. Your mind is enslaved to his. — Thomas Hardy

Nice work," I commented drily. "How old was that littlest one? Five? Did she put up a terrible fight?"
"I feared for my life," Zach said with a perfectly straight face. "You must be bored, Julia. You usually have a sharper sense of humor than that."
"Eat thorns."
"Well, it is about lunch time. Let's go grab a bite. — Erica Lindquist

He's so handsome," Phoebe commented just as Finley directed her attention at her.
"Who?" she demanded.
"The Duke of Greythorne," came the reply. "He just left."
She glanced out the window, but all she saw was a tall gentleman with reddish-brown hair and wearing very fashionable clothing as he walked away from her. "Well, he has a tolerable back," she commented drily.
Pheobe snickered. "Looking at his backside are you, Finley? — Kady Cross

Ha!' said the tall man drily. 'He was in high luck. Rich old uncles who die are in shockingly short supply. — Susanna Clarke

Well, I knew that goat would be a little gold mine," I say.
Yes, of course I was referring to that, not the lasting joy you gave your sister you love so much you took her place in the reaping," says Peeta drily. — Suzanne Collins

But now came another old theme: self-blame. She was selfish, crabbed, drily ambitious. Pursuing her own ends, pretending to herself that her career was not in essence self-gratification, denying an existence to two or three warm and talented individuals. Had her children lived, it would have been shocking to think they might not have. And so here was her punishment, to face this disaster alone, without sensible grown-up children, concerned and phoning, downing tools and rallying round for urgent kitchen-table conferences, talking sense to their stupid father, bringing him back. But would she take him in? — Ian McEwan

I've never been so tied to a place, to a person. Until you. But," she said when his eyes began to shutter, "it's the way I want it. I want to be tied to you."
He studied her for a long moment and then his lips curved.
"You're picturing it, aren't you," she said drily. "Me tied."
"To my bed," he said on a low laugh. "Yeah, a little bit. But mostly I'm liking knowing that you're tied to my heart. — Jill Shalvis

The result, as the journalist Elizabeth Drew noted in the Atlantic Monthly, was "an unabashed act to protect private industry from government regulation." Politicians were far more protective of the narrow interests of tobacco than of the broad interest of public health. Tobacco makers need not have bothered inventing protective filters, Drew wrote drily: Congress had turned out to be "the best filter yet. — Siddhartha Mukherjee

Good job not getting blown up." Men, in Tabitha's opinion, always seemed to need praise. Accordingly, she made an effort to dole it out. "Thank you," Stephen said drily. "I wasn't sure the mission was a success until just now." "I — Natalie Grey

As I reach the grand foyer, I see Jean-Baptiste and Gaspard step through the front door.
"You're here!" I cry.
"I had planned on taking a couple more hours to rest up," Gaspard explains with a grin, "however, we received this almost indecipherable text message on our mobile telephone ... "
Jean-Baptiste holds up his cell phone like it's a piece of alien machinery. "And I quote, 'Dudes, it's going down now. Get your sorry asses over here stat.' With such an eloquent request, how could we resist?" he remarks drily. But there is a ghost of a smile at the edge of his lips, and I know that he and Gaspard wouldn't miss this for anything in the world. — Amy Plum

You are a fucking hoot, Fred. I'm officially making you my new best friend. It's quite an honoured and sought after position, I'll have you know. So far I have a grand total of four friends in Dublin. You've currently just snagged yourself the top spot."
"Oh stop, Viv, I'm welling up, here," I reply drily. — L. H. Cosway

You don't look like a Rupert."
Startled,he raised a black brow at her. "Dare I ask what I look like to you?"
"A hungry wolf."
He didn't laugh at the description, but he did abruptly release her. "Wolf, perhaps," he said drily. "Hungry? Not at the moment."
She had enough sense to guess she'd just been insulted. Had she touched a nerve perhaps? Good,because he was certainly touching too many of hers.
Regaining her balance after stumbling back from him,she went to straighten her skirt in an indignant manner,but forgot she wasn't wearing one.How could she appear to be offended while she was wearing britches? She settled for grabbing the hat off the floor and shoving it back down on her head.
The very idea! Not hungry at the moment? As if she didn't know he was implying she wasn't to his taste. — Johanna Lindsey

I love you," Kenneth said, with terrible dispassion, "but I would not burn the Library of Alexandria for you"; and Anita, drily sobbing, cried, "You son of a bitch. — Jincy Willett

Maud laughed, drily. Roland said, "And then, really, what is it, what is this arcane power we have, when we see that everything is human sexuality? It's really powerlessness."
Impotence," said Maud, leaning over, interested.
I was avoiding that word, because that precisely isn't the point. We are so knowing. And all we've found out, is primitive sympathetic magic. Infantile polymorphous perversity. Everything relates to us and we're so imprisoned in ourselves - we can't see things. — A.S. Byatt

So, Acheron," Kyrian said, hijacking their conversation. "What happened to your car? I saw the busted fender on it. How unlike you to crash into anything."
Nick cringed as Acheron turned towards him with an arched brow.
"Hey now," Nick said, holding his hands up in defence of himself, "it was not my fault.I was minding my own business when the trash can went suicidal, came out of nowhere, and jumped in front of the car."
"It was on the curb, Nick," Ash said drily. "Along with a number of screaming pedestrians, running for their lives."
"That's your story. I'm sticking to mine ... And there ought to be a law about homicidal trash cans, and fines for people who put them on the street. They're really dangerous ... Just saying. — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Mustafa Kemal drily reminds his co-conspirators that the object is not to die for the revolution, but to live for it. — Louis De Bernieres

Let's see it," Boyd calls from outside the dressing room.

"How do you know I like this one enough to come out?"

"Because you've been in the same dress for five minutes and you're wearing pretend heels," he answers drily.

Wait. I fling open the door. "Are you watching me under the fitting room door? That's kind of pervy."

He smiles slowly. "All I can see are your feet to mid calf."

"Maybe you have a foot fetish. — Jana Aston

There's no reason why women shouldn't behave like rational beings," Simon asserted stolidly.
Poirot said drily: "Quite frequently they do. That is even more upsetting! — Agatha Christie

You might be the scariest girl I've ever met," he told her.
"Let's not be dramatic," she said drily. "I'm the only girl you can remember ever meeting. — Sherry Thomas

L1, by process of elimination," Luisa said drily, and laughed. "You space people love to count down, I know your ways." "It's — Neal Stephenson