David Handler > Quotes

“This whole, crazy fucking business can be reduced to one little word, one word explains it all. I'm going to give you the benefit of my experience and share that word with you, buck. It's revenge.... Them studio execs, agents, producers, they're all sweaty, unpopular, bitter little fucks, and now it's their turn. They get to make all of us golden boys and girls jump through hoops. They decide who's popular and who isn't, who's pretty and who isn't, who gets their phone calls returned and who doesn't. They make us grovel, submit, suck up to them. They're getting back at us, man. It means more to them than the money, the fame, the glamor, having power over guys like me.... It's what they live for.”
― David Handler, The Boy Who Never Grew Up

“The thing is, if you're an ugly goon when you're 15, you're an ugly goon for the rest of your life — until the day you die. You're always a goon, even if lots of years go by, even if you get married and have a kid, even if you're more successful than you ever thought you'd be in your wildest dreams. You're still that same goon who everybody laughed at. It never changes.”
― David Handler, The Boy Who Never Grew Up

“Why do you say that?” “Because you don’t hide your feelings very well. You never have.” “Maybe that’s because I don’t try.”
― David Handler, The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes: A Stewart Hoag Mystery

“Pain is mandatory. Suffering is optional.”
― David Handler, The Hot Pink Farmhouse

“Right.”
― David Handler, The Boy Who Never Grew Up

“It’s impossible to pick up a basset hound that doesn’t want to be picked up, just as it’s impossible to make one keep walking if it doesn’t want to walk anymore. It’ll just lie down and refuse to budge.”
― David Handler, The Man in the White Linen Suit