Cherie Priest Quotes

You see, sometimes when you work by yourself in a field such as ours, it helps to share knowledge among professionals. I'm not saying that we watch one another's back or anything, because we don't. It's more of a back-scratching than a back-watching affair, as in, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Officially, none of us has ever heard of any of us.

I've got the camera. You got the film?"

Benny shook the baggie until the canisters fell out. "I got the film."

I tossed my head over at Jamie. "What've you got?"

"Passion. Charm. Talent. And an irrepressible desire to charge around a battlefield while I'm being pursued by the dead."

"Okay," I agreed. "If that's all you've got, it'll have to do.

They obviously weren't trying to recruit us, which was sort of a shame. I imagined a full unit of vampire soldiers and I got a little giddy, and distracted. Bad idea, maybe. But it'd be epic, wouldn't it?

Depending on which frothy-mouthed Internet pulpit-beater I chose to believe, Holzter Point might conceal anything from alien artifacts to Bigfoot's sperm samples, plus a few pickled flipper babies from Three Mile Island and Jimmy Hoffa's stomach contents. I'd like to make fun of those guys, but I had information from a blind vampire that the storage facility held details of medical experiments conducted by the military on the unwilling undead. So far be it from me to call anyone nuts.

I don't think I've ever met any Mexicans before."
"They're tyrants, and imperialists, every last one of them." If he'd been holding any more tobacco in his lip, he no doubt would've used it to chase the sentence out of his mouth."
"And I guess you've talked to every last one of them, to be so sure of that.

Soon the bare but civilized streets of St. Paul gave way to emptier places with shorter buildings and fewer streetlights ... and then no buildings, and no streetlights, and after a few turns I was urging the Nissan along a two-lane road in the middle of what could best be described as the geographic center of Godforsaken, Bumblefuck. The

I found a narrow slot in which to leave my vehicle. I had to bash the bumper of an SUV to squeeze into the nook, but I didn't exactly shed a tear over the event and no, I didn't leave a note. That's what they get for parking too close to a fire hydrant, with one wheel on the curb. An asshole who leaves his (or her) vehicle in such a fashion deserves whatever automotive detailing inconvenience comes his (or her) way.

My own mental health issues had come and gone the same way, diagnosed nearly a hundred years ago as simple "hysteria," which only meant that I was a woman and really, who gave a shit what was actually wrong with me? Or

You're a hard negotiator, Ray-Baby."
"I'm going to get a lot harder if you call me that again."
"Give me a minute. Less than a minute. I'm almost certain I can make a filthy joke in response to that."
"No", I told him. "No, for the love of God, don't.

You're a smart boy. Or if you're not, you ought to be.

Besides, if comics have taught us anything, it's that death is rarely a permanent condition."
"But we're not superheroes," May argued.
"Speak for yourself," Jackdaw told her.

If Mattel ever makes a Drag Queen Barbie, they damn well ought to pattern that doll's proportions after Sister Rose. Those were legs that could crack a horse's ribs, and they knew how to move.

For some reason the mundanity of it all offended Gideon. You'd think people would have the good grace to dress up for an assassination.

The distance between an honest Christian mystic and a fortune-teller is sometimes less than half a whisper. Less than a pot of tea or the space between two book covers.

Oh, it doesn't work at all. That's the problem! It's an endless, halting parade of inspections, bribes, and nonsense - but if you're aboard a Texas vessel, you'll find less inconvenience along the way."
"It's because of their guns!" declared Mr. Henderson, once more escaping his reverie, bobbing out of it as if to gasp for air.
"Concise, my love." Mrs. Henderson gave him a smile. "And correct. Texans are heavily armed and often impatient. They don't need to be transporting arms and gunpowder to create a great nuisance for anyone who stops them, so they tend to be stopped ... less often.

Meanwhile, me and Adrian will head for Atlanta, where everything will go smoothly and no one will get hurt, and everyone will have a productive time learning a great many useful things.

If you've never been to Atlanta, then let me save you a bit of grief. If someone tells you something's on "Peachtree," you must demand that they get more specific. There are probably a dozen incarnations of Peachtree, going in at least that many directions through every part of town.

Don't let the case from 1995 fool you. Early Bil Gates Beige is just a color. Many wonders lurk therein."

"Many wonders?"

"A fast-as-hell processor. Shit-tons of memory. A hard drive that could crack nuts. And best of all, for our purposes, some very expensive audio editing software that I did not pay for."

"Ah. And the rest of this stuff--over here on the bookcase?"

"External drives. A CD burner. Extra parts. And that thing on the end that looks like a little hot plate is a mug-warmer my grandmother gave me for Christmas. So that's not part of FrankenHal.

Jackson," he mused. "Not a name either one of you was born to."
Lizzie answered, "No. But beyond a certain point, names become accessories. We swap them out as needed, for the sake of peace. You understand?"
"I understand. Though I disagree. Names aren't hats to change a look, or a suit to be swapped at a whim. Words mean things."
"Then we must agree to disagree.

But the other half of my motivation came from farther back in my brain, in the curious part that I inherited. It came from the spot in my skull that feels the burning need to unravel puzzles, finish crosswords, indulge in Internet games, and read all the mystery books I can get my grubby little paws on. Like it or not, need it or not, and want it or not, I can't leave a good mystery alone.

Either birds or bats flapped up and into the night as the gates rolled back into position. My money was on bats. Little blingy ones, carrying tiny Louis Vuitton clutches.

I shrugged. "Sometimes things sound easy because they are easy." "And sometimes things that sound easy only sound that way because you're completely fucking delusional," she

I was getting the hang of arson. It really sends a message, you know? Not only will I kill your dudes and steal your shit, but I will burn your place down behind me.

At no point, anywhere in Seattle, is there a clear and obvious route to an interstate. And, if you find yourself magically right beside an interstate on-ramp, you can safely assume that it's leading the wrong direction. You might say to yourself, "Self, if I've found the on-ramp going this direction, surely the on-ramp going the other direction must be right nearby!" But you'd be wrong. This place was designed by crack addicts, I'm convinced of it.

He'd been sticking his neck out, which is literally the stupidest thing I can imagine anyone doing when it comes to vampires. That ought to be Rule Number One For Dealing With Vampires, right there. Don't stick your neck out!

Sure he's dead, and it's a good thing for us. It's hard to argue with a dead man. A dead man can't change his mind or make new rules, or behave like a bastard so no one will listen to him anymore. A dead man stays a saint.

She collected herself, and rose from the floor. "Until you have a better grasp on what we're dealing with here, I'd appreciate your immediate proximity."
I did as she asked. She was the expert, after all.
But what a terrifying thought, that the world's foremost expert knew only enough to live in horror.

Chain link all around with razor wire at the top, the fence was maybe nine feet high. I didn't see any signs right away, but as I trudged along its length I eventually encountered an admonition to KEEP OUT. PROPERTY MONITORED AND MAINTAINED BY THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT. It might as well have said, WELCOME, RAYLENE. LET YOURSELF INSIDE, BUT KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN, M'KAY?

She was a decent storyteller, but a crap liar, for all the sense that made.

She was thirty-five, and she did not look a minute younger.

Vision is also a fickle creature. You can see an object a hundred times, a thousand times, and it remains unchanged. Then in one swift second you realize it has been changing all along and your eyes hid it from you.

I'd learned that Holtzer Point was a top secret facility in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'd gathered that much already, but it was nice to have it confirmed by a series of websites that appeared to have been composed by middle-school-aged conspiracy theorists with a passion for stupid-looking animated graphics.

This may be a shitty work environment, but OSHA doesn't have any guidelines when it comes to ghosts. We'll have to make up our own as we go.

Boys disobey their parents with such great regularity that it's barely worth a comment; and if yours is talented enough to rebel in such grand fashion, then you ought to consider it a point of pride that he's such a sharp lad.

There was nothing I could do but squirm faster and try to trust Adrian, who was surely one of the most competent mere mortals I'd met in years. He had a (small, girlie) gun, he had his wits, and he had ... I don't know. Maybe a silver bikini under his commando-wear, for all I knew.

Three years passed.
And then there was a sticker.

(Is this what we fled, when we left the ocean? Did we grow legs so we could run away?)

I slipped on through, slicker than whale shit through an ice floe.

I hate meeting new people even new clients who intend to give me money. I try to be pleasant but I'm not very good at it. The best I can usually pull off is 'professional if somewhat chilly.' It's not ideal no. But it beats 'awkward and bitchy.

Libby was dead. Princess X disappeared.
May lost her best friend again, and again, and again.

And if there are gods after all, perhaps we should not struggle so hard to get their attention, if this is the attention they would lavish upon us.

Every affair is a fairy tale or a tragedy.

"I don't know exactly what's wrong with you, but I bet it's hard to pronounce when you're drunk."

I like to pretend that I'm covering my tracks, bracing for any contingency. Ready for the worst, and all that jazz. I always feel better if there's a plan in place. And in this case, the plan was, Leave the blind guy in charge of the juvenile delinquents and everything will be just fine. Probably.

It's been said that she was young once, but never beautiful.

Adrian said, "You sure know how to win friends and influence people." "That's why they call me Raylene. It's Greek for 'charming.' " "You're so full of shit," he observed.

In my career I've had my hands upon more revolting bodies than a layman is likely to encounter in a lifetime of trying. I've squeezed boils, soaked my hands in blood and pus, slipped in entrails, swaddled slippery stillborns, and pulled excrement from unwilling bowels by hand.

As for the prayers, I suppose they can't hurt. I've never found much good in them, I'll confess that here, though I keep such thoughts private when in public company. Who would confide in a physician who claimed no affiliation with God? I still must feed myself, and keep my house. I still need my patients. But too many people believe with too much conviction in what amounts to, at best, a superstition.
I've seen science change a patient's diagnosis, but I've never heard a prayer that changed God's mind about a damn thing..

Over and over again, we lift God out of our reach. Over and over, push Him beyond our grasp, yet still we stretch out our fingers and seek to touch Him.
But find nothing.

You know, everything's a ghost story, eventually.

Palatable. Easier to overlook. Forgotten, or at least smoothed into some pearl-like blandness, if not a thing of beauty.

So here's the rules - keep quiet, keep close, and if we're spotted, climb like a goddamned monkey ... If I get picked off, you don't come back for me. If I see you get picked off, I aint coming back for you. Life's hard. Death's easy

But at some point, a full-grown woman has to be accountable for her own self, and for the choices she's made.

Barringtons aren't local by origin. They're carpetbaggers from Philadelphia - an offshoot of a House that had grown too big to govern. Or more to the point, it'd grown too big for everyone to successfully get along without a whole lot of murdering going on.

Why X?" Libby asked.
"Because X is the most mysterious letter," May told her. "And things with X's in them are pretty cool.

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Modern families are complicated things. Siblings, half siblings, stepparents, stepcousins, what have you. You can't pick who you're born to, that's for sure.

I didn't really think this poor woman was out to destroy the world. You have to be crazier than just schizophrenic to have an interest in that kind of thing. Usually you have to be a religious nut, too.

I immediately felt better about killing him. I've never known a Trevor who wasn't a total douchebag. It's just one of those names that goes so nicely with selfish, arrogant, malicious behavior - and really, what did I know about this guy? Nothing, except that his name was Trevor and he'd been nabbed in the midst of breaking-and-entering. That was plenty.

He hadn't found what he'd meant to find, but his need to swipe and hoard something had been appeased for now.

Sometimes you get a good eyeful of a man-sized action figure - and he knows what you are, and what you can do ... and you know what he is, and what he's done before, or what he's helping other people do. And you just can't stand it because for all his bluster and bullshit he's weak and horrible, and cowardly, and if he caught you, he'd do terrible things to you - the kinds of things that were done to Ian and Isabelle.

I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal.
We'd see what Mr. Colt could do for a woman.

I had an irritating flash of nervousness, wondering if he was right outside - or across the street, or downstairs, or hiding in a closet. Because I couldn't stop myself, I rushed to the hall closet and flung it open to make sure. Packed

Yes it's pink. That's how you know it's for ladies. That might be the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say.

The sound came again. There was a whistle to it, and a moan. It was almost a hiss, and it could've been a strangled gasp. Above all, it was quiet, and it seemed to have no source.
It whispered.

Sometimes the advantage of being young and bright is not knowing what's impossible.

All this, in the midst of a city already plagued by the Ku Klux Klan - a group more sinister and suspicious than most people have any idea, and their public face is troublesome enough without any secret agenda hiding beneath their ridiculous robes. I tell you, they're stranger than the Freemasons and not half as well thought out, but they're radical, blind believers of awful things.

Surreal. It was his word of the week. This must be one of the circles of hell Dante accidentally left off the list.

You can learn a lot about someone by his teeth. Or her teeth. Especially vampires. For some of us, hygiene goes out the window when our body temperature drops. We might not need much in the way of deodorant, but I swear - a little Listerine never hurt anybody.

Sometimes, everyone is right. Not always and not even usually, but once in a while, everyone is right.

a certain stink on a certain kind of soul, a foul scent of hateful smallness too often thwarted . . . then given an ounce of power.

Even down here, money has plenty to say.

It was a train full of strangers, and they were all the same.

Adrian had a Guinness because I guess he felt like drinking a loaf of bread or something. That's what it smelled like, anyway.

I don't like raccoons. They look ... shifty, with their little burglar masks and everything. Also, they carry rabies. Can I catch rabies? Probably not. All the same, it sounds gruesome - and I think we all know that cute, fuzzy woodland creatures are not to be trusted on general principle.

We need him dead or in jail, and I'm probably a crappy murderer. – Libby

I guess because, well, just because it was able to evolve. When it couldn't be one thing anymore, it became something else and kept on living that way

Honey, these aren't ordinary penis bones." "Not the kind you pick up at Walgreens, with a bottle of aspirin and a scented candle?