Bayou Quotes

What can I do?"

She took a deep breath and said, "Just hold still." She put her hand behind his head, leaned in, and kissed him. ~ Erin Nicholas

Kennedy snorted at that..."Sorry. I just...I don't spend a lot of time with people who let rules get in the way of doing the right thing." She grimaced. Maybe she shouldn't be admitting that. ~ Erin Nicholas

Morning, ma'am. I'm looking for Tommy Mason. Is he around?" Polite and professional, that was Senior Agent Broussard.
"Lord, what's that no-good sonofabitch done now? Wait, you ain't a cop; you're a game warden. "What'd he do, run over a fish? ~ Susannah Sandlin

She put her hand on her hip. "Where are you going?"
"To the boat. You called me Lord Bill again. That means we're cool."
Cerise slapped her forehead with the heel of her hand and followed him. ~ Ilona Andrews

I had come to love the space, and I could see why Lady Anna had too. The orchids were positively glorious. She'd tagged each flower with its proper botanical name, but I favored the pet names she'd given each bloom. For instance, a stunning pink 'Cattleya' was named "Lady Catalina." And a yellow 'Oncidium,' which to me looked like a flock of ladies in fluffy party dresses, was called "Lady Aralia of the Bayou. ~ Sarah Jio

I just started calling myself 'Swamp A-.' Like, I have swamp a- right now. I had major swamp a- because I was wearing these Spanx to hold in my gut ... It's like the bayou up in that region. ~ Jessica Simpson

The bones said death was comin', and the bones never lied.
Eva Savoie leaned back in the rocking chair and pushed it into motion on the uneven wide-plank floor of the one-room cabin. Her grand pere Julien had built the place more than a century ago, pulling heavy cypress logs from the bayou and sawing them, one by one, into the thick planks she still walked across ever day.
She had never known Julien Savoie, but she knew of him. The curse that had stalked her family for three generations had started with her grandfather and what he'd done all those years ago.
What he'd brought with him to Whiskey Bayou with blood on his hands.
What had driven her daddy to shoot her mama, and then himself, before either turned forty-five.
What had led Eva's brother, Antoine, to drown in the bayou only a half mile from this cabin, leaving a wife and infant son behind.
What stalked Eva now. ~ Susannah Sandlin

Kennedy Landry wasn't really the patiently-wait-on-hold type of woman. Kennedy Landry was, however, the type of woman that made a man want to take what tiny semblance of control he could find and grab onto it like it was a lifeboat in the midst of a hurricane. ~ Erin Nicholas

Owen felt his mouth curve into a grin as he heard the familiar clap, clap, clap behind him.
That was one of his favorite sounds - high heels on the wooden dock of the Boys of the Bayou swamp boat tour company.
He took his time turning and once he did, he started at the shoes.
They were black and showed off bright red toenails. The straps wrapped sexily around trim ankles and led the eye right up to smooth, toned calves. The heels matched the black polka dots on the white skirt that thankfully didn't start until mid-thigh, and showed off more tanned skin.
He straightened from his kneeling position in one of the boats as his eyes kept moving up past the skirt to the bright red belt that accentuated a narrow waist and then to the silky black tank that molded to a pair of perfect breasts.
He was fully anticipating her lips being bright red to go with that belt and her toenail polish. God, he loved red lipstick. And high heels. In any color.
But before he could get to those lips, she used them, to say, "Oh, dammit, it's you."
Owen's gaze bypassed her mouth to fly to her eyes. Because he'd know that voice anywhere.
Madison Allain was home.
A day early.
Not that an extra day would have helped him prepare. He'd been thinking about her visit for a week and was still as wound tight about it as he'd been when Sawyer, his business partner and cousin, had told him that she was coming home. For a month.
Owen stood just watching her, fi ~ Erin Nicholas

Juliet laughed. "You all are crazy, you know that?"
"Oh, for sure," he said with a nod.
"Does it rub off?"
"If you're lucky. ~ Erin Nicholas

Silicon Bayou - aka Lafayette, LA - is the best kept secret reservoir of innovation mojo in America ~ Todd Park

I love bayou life. ~ Parker Posey

Don't pack your bags just yet, stay awhile,
Don't try to run away to higher ground,
You're in my twisted clouds of sad misfortune,
And you are such an entertaining crowd!
(I've never had such cheerful toys to play with...)
Forget I said that – just a little natural disaster Humour,
Ha-ha-ha.

Pull up a rusty lawn chair
On the waterfront in New Orleans,
And ignore the wind that howls,
Things aren't always as they seem.
I can smell fear in the air,
Fresh amidst the cornbread steam,
Forgive me if I sound excited,
(I'm going to be famous, you know!)
And let me take your money, please!

I'll drown your family, hunt down your pets,
I've got tricks that I've never even tried yet,
And it's so easy when I get the chance!
(I'll swipe your house in just one glance!)

As the saying goes, it all comes out in the wash,
But I'm the only wash that leaves no stone unturned,
Financial devastation is my middle name,
And social degradation is my third!

You, little boy from the bayou bank,
You used to fish for pointless fun
(I can appreciate having fun),
But after I go, you'll find your parents poor,
You'll have eviction notices on your door,
You'll have to sell any fish you can catch,
In a desperate grasp for money,
Although I hate to break it to you,
That bayou's polluted, honey!
I see nothing in your future ~ Rebecca McNutt

William glanced at her sword. His upper lip rose, showing her his teeth. My, my, Lord Bill, what big fangs you have. That was all right. She wasn't Red Riding Hood, she wasn't scared, and her grandmother could curse his ass so hard, he wouldn't know which way was up for a week. ~ Ilona Andrews

She grinned as she started across the carpet toward the bathroom... "I have been dreaming about that shower."

"This is going to be the dirtiest shower you've ever had."

"It better freaking be," she tossed over her shoulder. ~ Erin Nicholas

Speaking of tiny skivvies I think that's what you both should wear during your inevitable cage fight. We can even call your soon-to-be epic battle the Die-You in the Bayou. Sell tickets. ~ Adrian Phoenix

Hey, the only person I almost shot was Owen," Maddie said, giving her boyfriend a huge smile. "And if that does end up happening, he'll forgive me."
Owen grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head. "You'd nurse me back to health?"
"I'd make you alligator gumbo out of the fucking lizard that tried to take a bite of you," she said. ~ Erin Nicholas

And each one of them has a redemptive message. Blood Bayou's redemptive message is (about forgiveness). Can you forgive somebody? Can you come back (from the hurt)? (Can you find_ your way back from it. Can people change and can you forgive somebody? ~ Drew Waters

I have always wanted to see what the vibe was like and I was right It's on the Vermillion Bayou. ~ Shelby Lynne

i don't know where Blue Bayou was, the place Linda Ronstadt sang about, but this place would be home for a while, until the wind changed direction and blew me somplace else. ~ Norbet Weissinger

It depends. If I don't let you in, will you huff and puff and blow my house down?"
She had no idea. "I'm more of a kick the door open and cut everyone inside to ribbons kind of wolf. ~ Ilona Andrews

Hey, my brother," Eli said, sounding friendly and casual. "Let's chat about this first, before I hafta kill you and then figure out where to bury the body. Though I'm thinking out in a bayou, somewhere close to gators, you dig? ~ Faith Hunter

My voice had bayou gut them slipping out of their story like a bookmark forgotten by a reader between the pages ~ Cornelia Funke

I wouldn't put it past you," Kaldar said. "Or him. Who knows what the hell he might do?"
William made a cutting motion across his throat.
"He might kill you if you're not careful," she told him.
"Who, Will? We're the best of friends."
William rolled his eyes. ~ Ilona Andrews

Rick looked at his watch and gave a nod. "Yup! We have enough time before our next appointment."
"Enough time for what?" asked Amelia.
He grinned and began dancing around her and singing in jazz style: "Goin' down the bayou! Goin' down the bayou! Goin' down the bayou! Doodle-ee doodle-ee-doo!"
When Rick saw her eyes brighten, he said, I checked out a few bayous at Cross Lake. We're goin' down the bayou, sweetie."
Amelia asked with laughter in her voice, "Were you just singing a Disney tune? From the Princess and the Frog?"
"Yup! I have many talents. ~ Linda Weaver Clarke

The Caddo Bayou Marina. ~ Emily March

Tinkie's on the list."
"That's ridiculous. She and Enzo were only flirting."
"And Oscar showed his ass and then was seen floundering in the bayou where a blow-up sex doll, complete with a death threat, later showed up in front of an entire town." ...
"Even though they don't have a body, Pret is thinking Enzo's disappearance may prove to be a homicide. ~ Carolyn Haines

Life was too short and ended too suddenly. If you didn't take advantage of what you had today, tomorrow it might be ripped from you. ~ Ilona Andrews

Kaldar picked up a rock and tossed it into the clearing. It landed between two wards. A green stem shot out of the ground, and a hail of needle-thin thorns peppered the soil, striking sparks off the rock.
"You got any money on you?"
"No."
Kaldar grimaced. "What do you have?"
William made a mental inventory of some twenty-odd items he'd pulled out of the Mirror's bag of tricks and hid in his clothes this morning. Not much he could part with. "A knife," he said.
"Fine. I'll bet my knife against your knife that I can walk through there unharmed. ~ Ilona Andrews

The air smelled like Bayou Teche when it's spring and the fish are spawning among the water hyacinths and the frogs are throbbing in the cattails and the flooded cypress. ~ James Lee Burke

..the guests milled back and forth: men stood with their heads together, discussing politics and crops, their stiff white shirts puffed and ruffled, their voices rising and falling in steadfast opinions as women of fair whispered to one another and laughed behind silk fans, occasionally calling out gaily to pull another into their ring of white shoulder flounced with satin as house niggers dipped and weaved all around them bearing trays of syllabub and sack, almost invisible as the shadows they cast ~ Pamela Jekel

Nor must Uncle Sam's Web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broadbay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been, and made their tracks. ~ Abraham Lincoln

You said he was a soldier. You don't suppose ... ?"
"Oh, Gods." Ignata blinked. "You think something could be wrong down there?"
All of them looked at William, who chose this precise moment to slide the wet shirt back on his back, which required him to flex, raising his arms.
"That would be a shame," Cerise murmured. ~ Ilona Andrews

Everyone needs someone to balance them out. ~ Erin Nicholas

I realized that if you never do anything new, you never learn anything. And learning things changes you. Even if those things aren't what you intended to learn. You're never the same after an adventure, Kennedy." She tapped a finger over her heart. "In here you change. And in here you change," she said, tapping her temple that time. "I had to learn some things--make some mistakes--on my own. I thought." She gave a soft laugh."The thing is, once you have Leo Landry in your life, you're never really on your own again. ~ Erin Nicholas

I'm not worried about my father. If anybody understands taking a woman captive to ensure keeping her - he does. You can't grow up in a family like mine and not be a stalker. When we love, we obsess. We love like crazy until it gets in our bones, fucks with our minds, and takes over our soul. ~ Suzanne Steele

Well, when we get hot there are a couple of other things we do," he said.
Had he moved closer?
Juliet swallowed. "Like what?"
"We take clothes off," he said. ~ Erin Nicholas

With the gun which was too big for him, the breech-loader which did not even belong to him but to Major de Spain and which he had fired only once, at a stump on the first day to learn the recoil and how to reload it with the paper shells, he stood against a big gum tree beside a little bayou whose black still water crept without motion out of a cane-brake, across a small clearing and into the cane again, where, invisible, a bird, the big woodpecker called Lord-to-God by negroes, clattered at a dead trunk. It was a stand like any other stand, dissimilar only in incidentals to the one where he had stood each morning for two weeks; a territory new to him yet no less familiar than that other one which after two weeks he had come to believe he knew a little--the same solitude, the same loneliness through which frail and timorous man had merely passed without altering it, leaving no mark nor scar, which looked exactly as it must have looked when the first ancestor of Sam fathers' Chickasaw predecessors crept into it and looked about him, club or stone axe or bone arrow drawn and ready, different only because, squatting at the edge of the kitchen, he had smelled the dogs huddled and cringing beneath it and saw the raked ear and side of the bitch that, as Sam had said, had to be brave once in order to keep on calling herself a dog, and saw yesterday in the earth beside the gutted log, the print of the living foot. He heard no dogs at all. He never did certainly hear them. He only hea ~ William Faulkner

MOTHER NATURE was laying down some Law out there in the bayou night, and as befits the order of things, large feathered creatures dove off high branches, swooped low and stuck talons in smaller furry meals, and bandit-eyed coons came stealthily out of hollow logs and glommed finned, scaly chow from the still, brackish shallows, while all those things that slither waited, coiled, for the passing appearance of any prey absentminded, and where the bayou waters butted against land and a screened porch overlooked the boggy stage for these food-chain theatricals, Emil Jadick sat on the arm of the couch and wrapped up a lecture that had been real Type A in tone and content. He said, And if either of you fucks up because you ain't been listenin' to me, I'll take you off the calendar myself, understood? ~ Daniel Woodrell

Bennett sucked breath in through his nose. "You're a cruel and wonderful woman."

"I'm comfortable with that assessment," [Kennedy] told him. ~ Erin Nicholas

When my husband and I went into the bayou between New Orleans and Baton Rouge for a week of intensive marriage counseling after I started burning myself. My parents paid for it and kept the baby. It didn't work but we did have anal sex and the woman counselor gave me a recipe for oatmeal blueberry pancakes that I still make. ~ Merritt Tierce

I thumped her on the back, picked her up and dropped her on top of her dungarees. "Put them pants on," I said, "and be a man." She did, but she cried quietly until I shook her and said gently, "Stop it now. I didn't carry on like that when I was a little girl." I got into my clothes and dumped her into the bow of the canoe and shoved off.
All the way back to the cabin I forced her to play one of our pet games. I would say something - anything - and she would try to say something that rhymed with it. Then it would be her turn. She had an extraordinary rhythmic sense, and an excellent ear.
I started off with "We'll go home and eat our dinners."
"An' Lord have mercy on us sinners," she cried. Then, "Let's see you find a rhyme for 'month'!"
"I bet I'll do it … jutht thith onthe," I replied. "I guess I did it then, by cracky."
"Course you did, but then you're wacky. Top that, mister funny-lookin'!"
I pretended I couldn't, mainly because I couldn't, and she soundly kicked my shin as a penance. By the time we reached the cabin she was her usual self, and I found myself envying the resilience of youth. And she earned my undying respect by saying nothing to Anjy about the afternoon's events, even when Anjy looked us over and said, "Just look at you two filthy kids! What have you been doing - swimming in the bayou?"
"Daddy splashed me," said Patty promptly.
"And you had to splash him back. Why did he splash you?"
" 'Cause I spit mud through ~ Theodore Sturgeon

case with Cocodrie Bayou, which Solomon must have heard with a starting "p." Here is a list ~ Solomon Northup

Okay, so how does this work exactly?" I ask as we walk toward his car. "Do we float down the bayou in rowboat while little critters sing 'Kiss the Girl'. ~ Colleen Hoover

Fuck easy, Ceri. If you love him, fight for him. Nothing worth keeping is free in this world. ~ Ilona Andrews

We've been together for seven years. Can I really just walk out in the middle of a date and not look back?" #shinersbayou #book2

"How in tarnation do you lose a police car?" -Sheriff Hall #shinersbayou

"I know it's probably not the most romantic end to an otherwise charming night, but have you ever shot a shotgun before?" #shinersbayou #book2

#shinersbayou "No offense, but this is a small town, and if you're not from around here, the law around here doesn't care about you."-Eddie ~ Gen Griffin

Really? So you brought home a vampire? Cool. (Starla)
I'm not a vampire. (Talon)
'Not exactly,' he said earlier. What's not exactly a vampire? (Sunshine)
A werewolf. With his aura, it makes sense. Wow, Sunny, you found yourself a werewolf. (Starla)
I'm not a werewolf. (Talon)
What a pity. You know, when you live in New Orleans, you expect to meet the undead or damned at least once in a while. (She looked back to Sunshine.) You think we should move? Maybe if we lived over by Anne Rice we might catch sight of a vampire or werewolf. (Starla)
I'd be happy to see a zombie. (Sunshine)
Oh, yeah. You know, your dad said he saw one out on the bayou right before we got married. (Starla)
That was probably the peyote, Mom. (Sunshine)
Oh. Good point. (Starla) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

Slowly the reality of the situation sank in. He got his ass kicked, learned nothing, and got saved by a dumb dog and an old lady. If he lived long enough to report to Nancy back in Adrianglia, he would have to gloss over this part. ~ Ilona Andrews

Are you going to sit down?" Ida Belle asked. "Or am I supposed to drive down the bayou with you up there looking like a Jackie Chan hood ornament? ~ Jana Deleon

She surveyed the carnage behind him. "Did you have fun?"
He showed her his teeth. "Yes. ~ Ilona Andrews

I heard a few men in a restaurant talking about a bayou legend," Savannah said suddenly.She leaned ont he side of the boat,presenting him with an intriguing view of her tight jeans. They clung lovingly to every curve.
Gregori moved, a flowing of his body, gliding silently, and his large frame was blanketing Savannah's, blocking out the captain's enticing view.Gregori leaned into her,his arms coming down on either side of the railing to imprison her against him. You are doing it again. His words brushed softly in her mind even as his warm breath teased the tendrils of hair at her neck.
Savannah leaned back into him, fitting her bottom into the cradle of his hips. She was happy, free of the oppressive weight of the hunt,of death and violence. THere were only the two of them.
Three, he reminded her,his teeth scraping her sensitive pulse.He could feel the answering surge of her blood, the molten lava spreading in his.
My mother thinks my father is a cave man.I'm beginning to think you could give him a run for his money.
Disrespectful little thing.
"Which legend?There are so many," Beau said.
"About an old alligator that lies in wait to eat hunting dogs and little children," Savannah said.
Gregori tugged at her long braid so that she tilted her head back.His mouth brushed the line of her throat. I could be a hungry alligator, he offered softly. ~ Christine Feehan

I want you to always do everything you're capable of. ~ Erin Nicholas

After a long while, Rick cleared his throat and pulled over to the side of the road. He then turned to her and said, "Amelia sweetie, a lot of problems are caused because of a lack of communication. When you try to guess what the other is thinking, then that's when you get into trouble. If we communicate, find time for one another, don't take each other for granted, and even share responsibilities, it will bring us closer."
"Share responsibilities?"
He nodded. "Sure. A man who thinks he's too good to share with the chores needs to reevaluate his relationship with his wife. ~ Linda Weaver Clarke

Come in." The kid turned and walked toward the house. "I'll help you if I can." He paused, his brown eyes turned toward Stacy who now stood open-mouthed. "But you'll have to do something for me in return."
I frowned. "Like what?"
"Hide me from my mother," he said. His eyes were shiny with fresh tears.
I snorted. "Do you mean your mother, the beauty queen?"
"No," he said softly. His face suddenly seemed older. "I mean my mother, the monster. ~ K.D. Wood

I don't like coming over here at night, the girl said. The bayou is scary in the dark, all manner of things running wild out there. ~ Samuel Snoek-Brown

I'm a little dirty," he said huskily, running his hand up and down the outside of one of her thighs. "I washed up but should have showered. Didn't expect this."

"You probably should have expected this." Her voice sounded a little breathless.

"Yeah," he agreed, his eyes darkening. "I probably should have."

"It's okay," she told him. "I'm washable." Images of showers and soap bubbles tripped through her mind and she hoped through his as well.

He gave her a little grin. "Good to know. Means I can get you really dirty."

Juliet felt her breathing quicken. She put her hand against his face, over his scar. "I really want that."

Sawyer slid a hand up her back and into her hair. He urged her closer until her lips were nearly against his. "Me, too. ~ Erin Nicholas

You say the sweetest things. And that spaghetti perfume you're wearing is to die for. No hobo could resist.
She snarled. Heh. ~ Ilona Andrews

There was something about a guy in a uniform most women found irresistible. Ceelie and Sonia had pondered this peculiar phenomenon over late-night glasses of moscato back in Nashville. They'd decided it had to be the belt and all the equipment that dangled from it when the guys walked, which not only was phallic but probably released extra sex pheromones into the air and turned women into nectar-seeking honeybees. ~ Susannah Sandlin

He wavin' at you, Dave. Hey, it's that drunk man done fell in the bayou the ot'er night. That man must surely love water. ~ James Lee Burke

How she wished she were back at home with her family, strumming her banjo on the porch while Grampa Cornpone played the fiddle. Oh, the steamy bayou nights of her youth! Ma would cook up a huge pan of Creole innards, whilst Pa sat in the corner smoking his pipe of tabaccy with the hound dogs snoozing at his feet. ~ Howard Mittelmark

We have unfinished personal business I do believe." He smiled. "And I do love to make you blush."
"It clashes with my hair. ~ Susannah Sandlin

They came like specters from the dark maw of the bayou, first ghostly light in the fog, then the rasp of a motor: an aluminum powerboat scudding across lacquer-black water. ~ Tom Cooper

William's eyes glowed like two amber coals. She met his gaze and flinched. No emotion reflected in the amber, only intelligence, cruel in a way the eyes of a hunting Mire cat were cruel. She saw no worry, no softness, no thoughts at all, only waiting. He seemed barely human now, not a man but some feral thing, knitted of darkness and biding his time for an opportunity to pounce. ~ Ilona Andrews

What a voice. Deep, throaty, but not in a sexy way. In a haunted way. A voice full of heartbreak and ghosts.

I won't go back, I won't go home,
'Cause in this place, the dead still roam,
'Cause this time, Whiskey Bayou won't let me go. ~ Susannah Sandlin

Local waterways had long been contaminated from many sources. But in 1987, the state at last issued a seafood advisory for Bayou d'Inde, the Calcasieu Ship Channel, and the estuary to the Gulf of Mexico. ... From net to plate - fishermen, grocery stores, trucking companies, and restaurant workers - all were furious at the government officials who had declared the seafood advisory. ~ Arlie Russell Hochschild

I realized that I'm a child."
William looked point-blank at her chest. "No. ~ Ilona Andrews

The bayou came out in her voice more than it ever had before, and it sounded like an invitation to spend the night floating down a lazy canal together under the starlit night. ~ Christine Feehan

After a moment, Amelia heard Rick humming as he marched down the ramp. It was a familiar tune. She raised a curious brow as she listened to him and then it dawned on her.
"Singing in the Rain!" she exclaimed. "How do you know that song?"
He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "I had sisters. Remember?" And with that statement, he burst into song: "I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain. What a glorious feeling'! I'm happy again. ~ Linda Weaver Clarke

There was something about Madison Allain that had always made him want to fight dragons for her. ~ Erin Nicholas

Oh, honey, this town is full of guys I've dated and broken up with and run into at the gas station and bar on a regular basis. Just because you've seen each other naked is no reason that you can't talk about the weather while standing in the grocery store line. ~ Erin Nicholas

Memory, Evans-Pritchard reasoned, was an indirect expression of power. The Arenos faced structural amnesia about something else and linked it to a different source of power: the Louisiana Chemical Association, the Society of the Plastics Industry, the Vinyl Institute, Shell Oil, PPG Industries, and their leaders in government. Spokesmen for this source of power drew the popular imagination to the exciting economic fugure. The Arenos felt that their silent bayou, their buried kin, their dead trees were forgotten. ~ Arlie Russell Hochschild

We have a slate of four films. From Karen Young - the USA bestselling author - we have Blood Bayou. Again, we're relying on the story to tell itself and the characters tell it and not (relying on) shock value. It's a suspenseful drama ... The best way I can describe it is Pelican Brief meets Time to Kill. ~ Drew Waters