Callahan Quotes

At about the end of the eighteen minutes and twenty miles, I said: "But suppose I don't find anything before election day?"

The Boss said, "To hell with election day. I can deliver Masters prepaid, special handling. But if it takes ten years, you find it."

We clocked off five miles more, and I said, "But suppose there isn't anything to find."

And the Boss said, "There is always something."

And I said, "Maybe not on the Judge."

And he said, "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something."

Two miles more, and he said, "And make it stick."

And that was all a good while ago. And Masters is dead now, as dead as a mackerel, but the Boss was right and he went to the Senate. And Callahan is not dead but he has wished he were, no doubt, for he used up his luck a long time back and being dead was not part of it. And Adam Stanton is dead now, too, who used to go fishing with me and who lay on the sand in the hot sunshine with me and with Anne Stanton. And Judge Irwin is dead, who leaned toward me among the stems of the tall gray marsh grass, in the gray damp wintry dawn, and said, "You ought to have led that duck more, Jack. You got to lead a duck, son." And the Boss is dead, who said to me, "And make it stick."

Little Jackie made it stick, all right. ~ Robert Penn Warren

Their words faded into the darkness as if they were spoken and unspoken at the same time; as if they were important and yet not at all, as if they were two people talking or maybe just one.
Darkness, she understood later, easily confused the meaning of words, of skin touching skin. In their remaining summers together she tried to find that oneness again. When it was all over,
when youth ended and he chose Maisy, she understood the lesson from the dock that night: she could never again call her feelings of intimacy and oneness love. Nor would she be fooled again into believing that her love was returned, that a boy felt more for her than friendship. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Is your modesty worth death? ~ Skye Callahan

..allegation[s] of flirting dripping from his lips like drops from a leaky faucet. ~ Michael Callahan

We do science because we want to understand the truth. It is a constant, ongoing pursuit to understand our own biology so that we can make smart choices at an individual and policy level. If the science of breastfeeding is used first and foremost as a tool for breastfeeding promotion, we compromise public trust in science. Biased information about breastfeeding also sets up infant feeding as a debate, which sometimes escalates to mommy war status, and it doesn't need to be either of these. ~ Alice Callahan

One whiff of him and her libido went first-grader on her: hand raised, butt dancing in the chair as her hormones screamed, "Pick me! Pick me! ~ Coreene Callahan

...she would have walked all the way up to East Sixty-Third Street, and probably 163rd Street, if it meant pouring even more into this memory that wasn't a memory. ~ Michael Callahan

Every day I don't Google my name, there's another beautiful day. ~ Bill Callahan

I'm not really interested in religion or history or science or mathematics or psychology or politics or geography. I feel I am above them all, except geography. Geography is above me for now. ~ Bill Callahan

Looking down, I noticed the blood spreading across the marble floor and onto my fucking shoes. "Damn it. Get me new shoes as well." Hanging up, I dried my hands and stared at the bodies around me, just as another fool stepped in. He froze, looking first at the blood and then to me. "Anger issues," I said to him reaching for my gun. ~ J.J. McAvoy

When I write a song, it is to fill a niche in people's lives. To have a song for every experience if one hadn't been written yet. ~ Bill Callahan

There is a magnificent intensity in life that comes when we are not in control but are only reacting, living, surviving. I am not a religious man per se ... but for me, to go to sea is to get a glimpse of the face of God. At sea I am reminded of my insignificance-of all men's insignificance. It is a wonderful feeling to be so humbled. ~ Steven Callahan

When I sit down with a novel in my hand I want to enjoy the experience. That means having fun. Too many books take themselves too seriously and even a drama needs to have it's lighter moments to make the dark parts more intense. ~ Clayton J. Callahan

I believe it's a miracle in life when you find people who care about and desire the same things you do, and creativity does that
brings those people together in one place. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Unearthing the truth was akin to creating it; something new and profound appeared where it hadn't been before. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Not listening is a good way to get yourself killed here, which is exactly what would have happened if I hadn't come downstairs to see what trouble out resident dipshits had dragged in. You have yet to be ripped to pieces or to be removed of your ability to speak. If you want to keep it that way, I suggest that you learn to obey simple commands. Shut up. ~ Skye Callahan

At midnight every night, I would methodically leave the house for a couple hours' walk, come back in, and record. And then the sun came up. If I had done something good, then I'd be happy and go to sleep. ~ Bill Callahan

The right thing at the wrong time is never the right thing. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Infatuation burns itself out,' she says. 'Friendship mixed with old chemistry
that can last a lifetime. ~ Tess Callahan

It's a rare hurt that can stand under the advice, help, and sympathy generated by upwards of thirty people that care. Callahan loses a lot of his regulars. After they've been coming around long enough, they find they don't need to drink any more. ~ Spider Robinson

Everybody has their shit to shovel,Callahan.Everybody.Now,yours is right up front where everybody can see it.I don't envy you that.But everybody has some,whether you can see it or not. ~ Sarina Bowen

I didn't feel like a slut, a bad mother, a terrible person. I didn't worry about my nudity or if he liked what I was doing. This shit was natural, like I was born to be in Joe Callahan's bed and it was natural to him too, like Joe Callahan was born to be in me. ~ Kristen Ashley

You can keep asking 'why', but you know it as well as I do. It's the reason you're here. The reason you took a chance and climbed into that cab last week. You want to know how I get under your skin so easily. How our conversations can make your body feel like it's coming undone. I want to know the same thing. ~ Skye Callahan

Sex is like air; it's not important unless you aren't getting any. ~ John Callahan

I wish more people felt that photography was an adventure the same as life itself and felt that their individual feelings were worth expressing. To me, that makes photography more exciting. ~ Harry Callahan

You look down on us... you think you're so much smarter than we are. When the only thing you really are is younger and luckier. ~ Michael Callahan

To my mind, voyaging through wildernesses, be they full of woods or waves, is essential to the growth and maturity of the human spirit. It is in the wilderness that you really learn who you are. ~ Steven Callahan

If you put someone in a job who is thinking for even a moment about the next job, you have the wrong person. ~ Mary Callahan Erdoes

When they make the movie of your life
they're going to have to ask you
to do your own stunts
because nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
could pull off the same shit as you
and still come out alright ~ Bill Callahan

I just don't know what makes a picture, really - the thing that makes it is something unique, as far as I can understand. Just like one guy can write a sentence and it's beautiful and another one can write it and it's dead. What the difference is, I don't know. ~ Harry Callahan

The lowest ebb brings the highest tide. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

I risked my heart on you and lost. Can you honestly say you did the same? ~ Michael Callahan

I had to admit, sometimes I sensed the strangeness of the world tugging at my sleeve, like a mischievous toddler, and I wanted to follow it. ~ Troy H. Gardner

Only the journey matters. ~ Harry Callahan

To see classic rock, you had to go to an arena. But punk was happening everywhere, even in little towns in the middle of nowhere in Maryland. I'd drive out to places I'd never been, just to go and see it. ~ Bill Callahan

I sometimes see a shortcoming in myself, how little patience or understanding I have for many people in the way they act. I am able to see the fragility in some, but I only have so much time to wade through their manipulations and traps and draining behaviour. Some people think I'm heartless in leaving others to suffer their own selves. ~ Bill Callahan

May you find your Tower, Roland, and breach it, and may you climb to the top! ~ Stephen King

But, my dear friend Wildfire," said Carl Peterson laying his hand on the Indian's shoulder, "this is not a policy to live by."

"Then let it be a policy to die by," defiantly spoke the Indian. "If we cannot be free, let us die. What is life to a caged bird, threatened with death on all sides? ~ S. Alice Callahan

It's time you stop running, little Loner. ~ Skye Callahan

There's so much chaos in life, I think I make music to make things feel calm and sane, to define something, to bring some meaning into it - it's a real peaceful thing to me. ~ Bill Callahan

You are an old soul, fortunately housed in very lovely wrapping. ~ Michael Callahan

He couldn't even find the will to yell at her now. A real man didn't yell at those who weren't exactly sane themselves, he told himself. ~ Lora Leigh

Drew Callahan is my absolute weakness. Like a drug I can't get enough of. He's my addiction and if I'm honest with myself, I'm not looking to kick that particular habit anytime soon. ~ Monica Murphy

A man's got to know his limitations. ~ Harry Callahan

When faced with everything sometimes the best course of action is nothing. ~ Bill Callahan

You get into moods - like, if somebody does something to you, then you're angry for maybe 30 seconds, or maybe 30 years. I was always interested in capturing those awful, unflattering things that everybody goes through - those hot moments, captured in ice. ~ Bill Callahan

Remember: There's a reason the fairy godmother gave Cinderella two glass slippers. ~ Michael Callahan

A drink centers me but I usually make myself wait until at least 9:00 PM for that. Or 8:00 PM. Whichever comes first. ~ Bill Callahan

Anna Wintour hadn't been to any of McQueen's shows, and McQueen didn't like it. McQueen said American Vogue could borrow the dress only if they flew it to New York and back, in its own seat, with an escort. It was a fuck-you and they took it, and the dress was shot by Richard Avedon. "Fashion people haven't got any brains," McQueen said. ~ Maureen Callahan

We have to know the truth about the past to discover out future. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Put on your fucking Dom britches and go find your subbie before the show starts and you end up groping around a dark auditorium filled with people twice your age. ~ Skye Callahan

Among all of the topics I cover in this book, the choice to vaccinate on schedule is backed by the strongest, clearest, biggest pile of evidence. ~ Alice Callahan

Just because I say what you want to hear, doesn't mean it's not the truth. ~ Skye Callahan

Whoa," Becky said, because the baby kicked her hard in the bladder.

Felix startled, backing up and nearly falling over a chair.

"Sorry, I was whoa-ing because right when you came in, the baby kicked, not because you're Felix Callahan. Oh, you know what it reminded me of ? When Elisabeth's baby kicks just as Mary greets her? Isn't that funny? As if I had some spiritual sign when I saw you."

Annette smiled, her eyebrows raised. Felix glared handsomely. Becky stamped down a desire to squirm.

"No, it's not terribly funny," Felix said, "particularly as I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Elisabeth, wife of Zacharias, cousin to Mary, mother of Jesus? No? Nothing?"

Felix looked at her with a careful lack of amusement.

"Oh, maybe you don't have the Bible in England. See, there's this guy named Jesus and his mother is named Mary, and well, it's a really interesting read if you don't mind parables. ~ Shannon Hale

A man's got to know his limitations."
Inspector Harry Callahan. ~ David Feeney

A view of heaven from a seat in hell. ~ Steven Callahan

I feel like you come in under a cloak of someone else's skin for a while, but then you can shrug it off - you have to find your own voice, if you want to keep doing it. That became a really conscious thing for me. ~ Bill Callahan

People say it all the time
'follow your heart.' What are we supposed to do
take our heart out and walk around behind it
follow it down the sidewalk to the mall? Your feet will lead you to your heart. Ha!
Maybe it just means you should know your heart, because if you know it, you might do what it says to do. I don't think it means you do whatever you damn well please. I don't think the heart speaks very loudly either
just tosses you hints and whispers. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Cole glanced between her sister and her boss, You only say that after drunken sexcapades ... please don't tell me
~ Skye Callahan

My personal philosophy is that, as a parent, it is my job to find that balance of when my child is ready to try something on her own and when she needs help. ~ Alice Callahan

Over time, hidden truths morph in the dark soil of deceit into something much worse. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

All of the signs we invented growing up and we never invented one for 'he's standing right behind you'? ~ Skye Callahan

This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving
and to act, to strive. This is what it is to be human: to reach forever beyond your grasp. This is what it is to be human: to live forever or die trying. This is what it is to be human: to perpetually ask the unanswerable questions, in the hope that the asking of them will somehow hasten the day when they will be answered. This is what it is to be human: to strive in the face of the certainty of failure. This is what it is to be human: to persist. ~ Spider Robinson

Sometimes we know who we want to be and what we want to do long ... long before we know how to get there. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

That's not the way it is, Callahan." I grabbed her hands and rolled her closer to me, until our knees touched. "The thing is, we're all fragile. It's just that most of our friends are lucky enough not to know it yet. ~ Sarina Bowen

Can't release her? The air caught in my chest, hardened, and refused to move. There was a good chance I wasn't making it out of this basement. The craziest thing I had ever done was ride some insane roller coaster at Cedar Point
and now that seemed like no big deal. I'd never been out of the country. Never played with my unborn niece.
Never made amends with my parents and sister since our continued fighting began almost eight months earlier. ~ Skye Callahan

Clients are becoming more global; they're realizing that markets are more interconnected. It's no longer the local regional clients buying the local regional flavors. It's everybody asking for everything. ~ Mary Callahan Erdoes

I have long begged off the question of my albums reflecting where I am 'at' personally. There is more inaccuracy in that approach than accuracy. ~ Bill Callahan

She's cold, sir," Greyson said, partially terrified, partially impressed. "Wrong again," I replied. She was a Callahan and like all Callahans... "She's ruthless. ~ J.J. McAvoy

I feel like there's already a written narrative going on everywhere. All the different situations and realities you're in, like words floating by. It's something that I didn't start thinking about until recently, but you can hitch that ride, that narrative that's already been created. You just have to read it and write it down. ~ Bill Callahan

I'm the boss," he said as I pulled down my pants and got into position. "Even if you're trying to be cute, no trying to passive-aggressively top me." There ~ Skye Callahan

Every time I talked about making a picture I didn't do it. I had already done it - talking about it! I quit talking. ~ Harry Callahan

Love had to be deeper than that, than a glance over tea, which was indicative but not dispositive. ~ Michael Callahan

THE STORIES WE TELL fearlessly explores the textures of the human heart, finding a path toward hope through a Savannah that is jagged with class issues, faith misused, and broken trust. Henry loses you in a landscape peopled with secret keepers, storytellers and liars, and proves that in the end, love is the only reliable compass. This is everything you expect from Patti Callahan Henry - lyrical writing, characters worth rooting for, a sure-footed belief in the power of goodness - plus a twisty plot that will keep the pages turning long into the night. ~ Joshilyn Jackson

A man has to know his limitations. ~ Harry Callahan

Be the author you are, and not the author you think you should be. ~ Moira Callahan

And now here you are, at peace in your Garden of Eden with your brother and your acreage and your students and your Inklings and you friends and your quaint town. All these things both inspire you and protect you. But a change might be in order. Not a change that disrupts, but one that expands." I paused. "Let new things touch your soul. ~ Patti Callahan

I think nearly every artist continually wants to reach the edge of nothingness - the point where you can't go any further. ~ Harry Callahan

When you know you love someone, when you know it's finally the right time, you don't just wait around for the right words, you just say the sentences even if they're all mixed up and imperfect. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

She doesn't use her neck. She only acknowledges things that come at her head on. And she's one of those people that answer your question before you even get through it. And the answer always begins with No, even if it's Yes. Or worse, No no no. ~ Bill Callahan

I was trained to turn loneliness into laziness. ~ Bill Callahan

Quiet, little Loner, while I figure out what to do with you. ~ Skye Callahan

I love art because it doesn't have rules like baseball. The only rule is to be good. That's the toughest thing to do. ~ Harry Callahan

There are always consequences to the truth. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Everything I've done today could have been done by a bear. The long seasoned sleep. The lumbering out of bed. Tearing at a hard roll dipped in honey. And then sprawling lazily in the grass when the sun hit. ~ Bill Callahan

As with any good friend, we have many of those moments when one turns to the other and says, 'You too? ~ Patti Callahan

Now you've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? - Inspector Harry Callahan ~ Clint Eastwood

There were some things that needed to be said even if the person you were saying them to didn't understand; words that must be released from their trapped place where their flapping to get out could cause internal damage. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

To be a photographer, one must photograph. No amount of book learning, no checklist of seminars attended, can substitute for the simple act of making pictures. ~ Harry Callahan

We can't just surrender to our every desire. Man must have his principles and live by them regardless. Our nature must be controlled or it can ruin our lives. ~ Patti Callahan

I look forward to sleeping each night. The air is cool and it often starts to rain around 2:00 A.M., breaking the heat and singing me to sleep. And I drink my tequila as if I'd be letting you down if I didn't. ~ Bill Callahan

We have to know the truth about our past to discover our future. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

I've spent all of my life in an attempt to find truth and moral good and then to live it. I can't discard my moral habits for feelings, which are just that.
(The moral virtues)
They are my footholds for moral goodness. Morality is about choice. ~ Patti Callahan

It was then I knew she knew she had the big, rough man who was Joe Callahan wrapped around her finger. ~ Kristen Ashley

I ... drew out the gun I kept at home, a great big old Dirty Harry Callahan number that weighed about seventy-five thousand pounds. ~ Jim Butcher

Those are the facts. It's easy to believe in facts, my dear. To believe in the story you need faith. Tell me the story as you experienced it. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

Souls bound together can't be forever torn apart by distance and neither by death. ~ Patti Callahan Henry

My first records are integral because I made them, you know, and I'm going to learn from those mistakes. ~ Bill Callahan

The heartfelt realization of one's insignificance yields a calming sense of being completely connected to the greater whole. As a tiny part of the world and humanity, I now feel more at peace and much larger than I ever felt as a man alone. ~ Steven Callahan

And the weight of the world slips away... ~ Bill Callahan