Mary Jo Quotes & Sayings

Men are imperfect creatures, aren't they? But they are the only opposite sex we have, so we must make the best of them. — Mary Jo Putney

His face searching the bus windows looked expectant, impatient, and a little anxious. It was a husband's face. Familiar, known, increasing beloved. Mary Ann, I reflected, had an awful lot to learn. And actually, I reflected, I wouldn't be in her shoes right now for all the flowers in Bermuda ... having it all to learn again.
— Ann Head

What one loves in childhood stays in the heart forever. — Mary Jo Putney

I think what I brought from the private sector was a real appreciation of how much leverage - respect, if you will - that the SEC has. Major companies, in particular, really don't want to be at war with their primary regulator. The SEC may not have appreciated just how great our leverage is. — Mary Jo White

The 1993 Trade Center bombing was obviously frightening. It could have been much worse than it was. — Mary Jo White

Adam leaned down to Paul. That edge you lost in your fight with Mary Jo is what allowed me to take the time to find something that would hurt you instead of kill you. You can thank her for your life. — Patricia Briggs

bullet wound will do." Gordon — Mary Jo Putney

Winning her would be like coaxing a butterfly to land on his hand. Patience, gentleness, and perhaps a prayer or two would be required. — Mary Jo Putney

The evil of the Holocaust was realized through the exercise of a certain kind of power - coercive power. It was a power that sought to dominate and control. It was a power legitimated through law, buttressed by propaganda, augmented by terror, and affected through all the institutions of society. — Mary Jo Leddy

But why, she thought wryly, did a man seem more attractive as he became less available? How humbling to think one had so much in common with a cow stretching its neck through a gate for better grass. — Mary Jo Putney

I started my career in the private sector and then became U.S. attorney. I think I was a stronger U.S. attorney, and I frankly think I am a stronger Chair of the SEC, because of that experience. — Mary Jo White

[On New York City:] From a dating point of view, it's like a really large rummage sale - lots of strange items, but darned little that you'd want to take home. — Mary Jo Putney

Heresy is just philosophy that the establishment doesn't approve of, — Mary Jo Putney

Like a page dipped in ink, your cuff's in my coffee. / You have something to tell with unbuttoned sleeves. — Mary Jo Salter

The Trade Center itself held - and holds - a special place, I think, in the hearts and minds of people in law enforcement - the fact that it did not fall in 1993. Ramzi Yousef's goal was to topple the Twin Towers into each other so that more people died than had died at Hiroshima. — Mary Jo White

You ask every conceivable question after Sept. 11 in terms of what more could have been done, what could have been done differently. My impression from working on these cases and investigations for almost nine years was that an awful lot of people were working over time to connect dots. — Mary Jo White

And I said to myself, here's the problem with the world: The Italians are too Italian, and nobody else is Italian enough. — Mary Jo Salter

T. S. Eliot taught us you can write about your nervous breakdown, but call it 'The Wasteland' and make it big and crazy enough to hide behind. — Mary Jo Bang

Competence is a great creator of confidence. — Mary Jo Putney

yolks well and add milk and cream. Mix and sift dry ingredients and add to first mixture. Fold in egg whites which have been beaten until stiff. APPLE SAUCE CAKE 1 Cup Sugar ½ Cup Shortening 1 ¾ Cups Flour 1 Cup Warm Apple Sauce 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda ½ — Mary Jo Montanye

If you allow an experienced man of the world to introduce you to passion when you want him more than he wants you, he will own your soul, but you will not own his. — Mary Jo Putney

I'm literally an independent. Apolitical. So that I am not always going to be with the Left's perceived interests or the Right's perceived interests. — Mary Jo White

What is desire but the hard wire argument given to the mind's unstoppable mouth — Mary Jo Bang

Samuel Johnson said a second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience, Kirkland said. — Mary Jo Putney

Ted Kennedy's achievements as a senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne. — Adam Clymer

Life is a good deal more comfortable if one doesn't expect it to be fair. — Mary Jo Putney

I love Christmas. A time to slow down and enjoy life and be with my family and friends. In busy years, it keeps me sane. In bad years, it makes me feel whole again. — Mary Jo Putney

My brother said that at Eton, students were told caning builds character. I suppose girls are caned less because we aren't thought to have much character."
"Which is the sort of thing males say when they don't know any women. — Mary Jo Putney

clinical picture — Mary Jo Wagner

You don't have to be crazy to be a writer, but it certainly does help — Mary Jo Putney

I was raised to assume that wealth and rank and privilege would be mine by right," he said painfully. "Through a combination of bad luck and bad judgment, most of those assumptions were beaten out of me. While other young gentlemen raced horses and chased opera dancers, I learned that the world grants no rights beyond the chance to struggle for survival." His mouth twisted. "In the army I was flogged, wore rags, and damned near starved to death. I was forced to face every flaw and weakness in myself, and to learn the harsh lesson that men born to whores and raised in the gutter could be stronger, braver, and more honorable than I — Mary Jo Putney

You slept with Tori Spelling?...Nobody sleeps with Tori Spelling-not by choice anyway. — Mary Jo Eustace

Spirituality is rooted in desire. We long for something we can neither name nor describe, but which is no less real because of our inability to capture it with words. — Mary Jo Weaver

But she had never known that a man could want a woman and not take her because he did care. There was something very fragile and precious in the idea, though she didn't really understand it. Maybe someday she would. — Mary Jo Putney

Don't need a knife or gun or poison to break a man's heart. — Mary Jo Putney

You were. You are
The brightest thing in the shop window
And the most beautiful seldom I ever saw — Mary Jo Bang

She always imagined the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Blessed Mother as points of light in the center of her heart, and as she prayed, the light expanded, flowing through her body and soul, smoothing away knots of guilt and sorrow and fear until her whole being glowed with harmony. — Mary Jo Putney

behind the anger, she saw that he loved her, — Mary Jo Putney

There is a moment each day when it is morning before it is morning. Darkness still hovers over the deep. Those who wait for the dawn can hear it even before they see it. — Mary Jo Leddy

But I'm so very glad that my resistance was futile! — Mary Jo Putney

I've always thought of this city as Disneyland for adults ... There's no danger of Las Vegas expiring from an excess of good taste. — Mary Jo Putney

I don't know what you hope for in a husband, but if it is to be loved ... well, I think it would be very easy to fall in love with you. — Mary Jo Putney

I believe in love
Nicholas Davies - Earl of Aberdare — Mary Jo Putney

The name Mary Jo Quinn was written neatly in faded blue marker on the front of the scrapbook, its gray edges frayed with age and wear, as though it had been handled often. Such a memento was a strange thing to find in a used bookstore, especially when one considered its contents. I'd discovered the handmade tome buried on the bottom shelf on the back wall of a little musty-smelling shop in the tiny resort town of Copper Harbor. This picturesque community is the gateway to Isle Royale National Park, an island in the western quarter of Lake Superior that beckoned to hikers, kayakers and canoers. Copper Harbor is the northern-most bastion of civilization in Michigan on a crooked finger of land called the Keweenaw Peninsula. Its remote, pristine shoreline provided an excellent respite from a hellacious year for my best friend from high school and me on a late September weekend. — Nancy Barr

Europeans condemned Chinese foot binding, but any society that had invented the corset had a lot to answer for. — Mary Jo Putney

To love and be loved is the most powerful of human needs
Clare Morgan — Mary Jo Putney

Michael is easier to understand - he had to believe in Caroline. To betray a friend was despicable - to acknowledge that he had done so for a woman who was utterly unworthy — Mary Jo Putney

The only power she wanted over him was the power to make him happy ... She wanted them to be equal in their loving, not master and slave. — Mary Jo Putney

Trees can grow from tiny cracks in stony cliffs, Kate. This may be a very small crack indeed - but it's a beginning. — Mary Jo Putney

Bertrand Russell said, 'Electricity is not a thing like St. Paul's Cathedral; it is a way in which things behave.' And it's not 'they' who say, but Walter Benjamin who said, 'Things are only mannequins and even the great world-historical events are only costumes beneath which they exchange glances with nothingness, with the base and the banal.' In September, 1940, Benjamin died under ambiguous circumstances in the French-Spanish border town of Portbou, while attempting to flee the Nazis. — Mary Jo Bang

She made a purring sound in her throat and pressed into his palm, — Mary Jo Putney

What a joy Mary Jo Putney is to read; she can't write fast enough for me. — Laura Kinsale

A witty vicar once said that a good marriage is like a pair of scissors with the couple inseparable joined, often moving in opposite directions, yet always destroying anyone who comes between them. The trick is for the blades to learn to work smoothly together, so as not to cut each other. — Mary Jo Putney

Something must be done about the food."
Seeing his speculative glance Clare laid down her fork and gave him a warning scowl. "Yes, I'm a good cook, but I will not have time to work in the kitchen. And don't try to convince me that a mistress also has to cook for her lover."
"I wasn't thinking of wasting your valuable time in the kitchen." He smiled mischievously. "But a mistress can do interesting thing with food. Shall I describe them?"
"No!"
"Another time, perhaps. — Mary Jo Putney

Gentlemen do not work. Since I do not work, therefore I must be a gentleman. — Mary Jo Putney

I think that marriage is always the triumph of hope over fear. — Mary Jo Putney

Not a savage - a barbarian. Savages know nothing of civilization. We barbarians know what civilization is, though we may have a low opinion of it. Peregrine's tone was distinctly ironic. — Mary Jo Putney

He'd known the headland was undercut from years of waves and weather, but he hadn't expected to trigger its complete collapse. Shoving the wall over had been merely an attempt to complicate the situation. He'd never imagined ... this. — Mary Jo Putney

A child, then a man, now a feather / Passing through a furious fire / Called time. — Mary Jo Bang

Say to the darkness, "We beg to differ!" — Mary Jo Leddy

The wheel begins its only if turning. / It had never stopped. / This is life's bargain that motion / Is hope. — Mary Jo Bang

And with the deftness of a thief, he was picking the lock of her willpower. — Mary Jo Putney

Money is that dear thing which,
if you're not careful, you can squander
your whole life thinking of ... — Mary Jo Salter

We all grow up thinking our parents found us under cabbage leaves and that sex didn't exist before our personal coming-of-age. — Mary Jo Putney

If death is inevitable, one should try to die well. — Mary Jo Putney

Male philosophers coin phrases
'virtue is its own reward'
and female workers embody them. — Mary Jo Weaver

Worry is throwing good shillings at trouble that hasn't happened yet. — Mary Jo Putney

Once more Mary Jo, Bobby, Kevin, Dennis, Raymond, Lucille, Frankie, Coddles, Lyle, John, Andy, Miss Ursula, Jim, Lonnie, Postmaster Jones, William, Travis, Todd, Tony, Dennis M. . . . On the ride home from Sheriff's office, everyone was again on porches or at windows. Daron didn't call out their names this time, and this time no one waved. Where do the black people live? In the front yards! It was funny. (I guess that's better than the back of the bus, Louis had later added. Daron had thought that funny, too.) Louis's absence was always noticeable. Though skinny, he'd filled space like a fat man on a crowded elevator, except a welcome addition, not someone who provoked strangers to regard each other with situational solidarity. He had, in fact, induced people to regard each other with suspicion, to question the known. — T. Geronimo Johnson

Why are you not where you belong? / A black hat on a hook says nothing. / Ashes mirror ashes / In a mirroring window. — Mary Jo Bang

Some fusty fellow, perhaps Samuel Johnson, had once said that every man was sorry if he hadn't been a soldier. She — Mary Jo Putney

Form, not the crashing waves far below at the base of the cliff. She looked eerily like the sketch that Kenneth had drawn of — Mary Jo Putney

Principles are sometimes an unaffordable luxury. — Mary Jo Putney

Books had been invented to salve human loneliness, and they were friends without peer, friends who never sneered or flinched or laughed behind a man's back. Books revealed their treasures to all who took the effort to seek. — Mary Jo Putney

Enigmatic - the quality of keeping silent and making people wonder if one is stupid rather than opening one's mouth and removing all doubt. — Mary Jo Putney

I suddenly thought back to a time when I was crying on the playground in first grade. We'd all been working on an art project and I was put on a team with Chelsea, her neighbor Erica, and a girl named Mary Jo Myers. We were all supposed to work together, but the three of them cut me out completely, acting like I wasn't even there. If I spoke, they ignored me. If I tried to do something, they pulled it out of my reach. I was in tears by the time we broke for recess, sure nobody in the world liked me. — Stephanie Faris

Disdain for authority is the bedrock of my character. — Mary Jo Putney

Auriele stepped in front of Henry when he would have gone to her. Her lips peeled back. "Hijo de perra!" she said, her voice alive with anger.
Henry flushed, so the insult hit home. Calling someone a son of a dog is a good insult among werewolves.
"Hijo de Chihuahua," said Mary Jo. — Patricia Briggs

If I have an ambition, it's to leave the world a little better than I found it. — Mary Jo Putney

Mikhal - ... most of all, I want to be the man that I am only when I am with you — Mary Jo Putney

In terms of the breadth of the threat of Al Qaeda itself - it's not the only terrorist organization, and it works with others as cells around the world in at least 60 countries. You potentially are talking about tens of thousands of followers who can be conscripted into service to carry out a terrorist plot. — Mary Jo White

Softly he continued, "You need to ask God for forgiveness. That's His job, isn't it? To forgive imperfect humankind. You are quick to forgive others and offer them kindness. Do the same for yourself. — Mary Jo Putney

Just be careful, Mary Jo. Be very careful. You've made mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. One you should not make is to imagine that Christy will ever be Adam's mate. He is mine, and unlike her, I don't throw away people who are mine. — Patricia Briggs

I don't usually look back. When I make foolish decisions, I file the consequences under lessons learned and tell myself not to be stupid in the same way again. — Mary Jo Putney

To say you loved a person. / To say that person no longer exists. / A tragic flawed fate going on and on and on. — Mary Jo Bang

Mary Jo Putney is a gifted writer with an intuitive understanding of what makes romances work. I loved Silk and Shadows, couldn't put it down, and don't think readers will, either. — Jayne Ann Krentz

You are reduced / To the after-sorrow / That will last my lifetime. The hair-tearing / Grief of the mother / Whose child has been swept away. — Mary Jo Bang

Parents and children were put on earth to give each other grief. You were my punishment for how I behaved to my own father. And I'll have my revenge when you have children of your own. — Mary Jo Putney

As a former prosecutor, sometimes people refer to me as 'Attila the Hun.' I understand how people can get a reputation sometimes. — Mary Jo White

I love you," he gasped. "For always." "And I love you," she whispered as tears filled her eyes. He rolled on his side and drew her close, his arms sheltering against the storm that pounded on London. The sky itself wept because they loved each other, and it wasn't enough. As — Mary Jo Putney

Like cats and ice cream, showers were among life's simple, uncomplicated pleasures. — Mary Jo Putney

The most we can ever do is our best," she said quietly. "If worry is interest paid on troubles we haven't had yet, guilt is pain wasted on what can't be changed."
"Please remind me of that regularly. I need to hear it. — Mary Jo Putney

Your precocity delighted everyone who met you even when you were behaving like a limb of Satan. — Mary Jo Putney

I say every dog looks like no other
but that isn't true. Not entirely.
Difference is slippery. — Mary Jo Bang

But gratitude would not have me love you as I do. Love was inspired by what you are - the good, the bad, and even the foolish, which is what you're being right now. — Mary Jo Putney

Because you loved, you promised. You must try harder to keep that promise. — Mary Jo Putney

A certain skill at billiards is the mark of a gentleman, but to play too well is the sign of a misspent youth.
Lucien Fairchild — Mary Jo Putney

What a pity that men couldn't find such satisfactions without killing so many of their fellows. — Mary Jo Putney

Once you can fake sincerity, you can fake anything. — Mary Jo Putney

Where you live determines what you see. The people you listen to influence what you hear. — Mary Jo Leddy

There was deep truth in the fact that men spoke of Holy Mother Church, for the Church was the force of civilization and compassion among nations, just as women brought mercy and gentleness to men. — Mary Jo Putney