The Kingmaker (All the King's Men, #1)

by Kennedy Ryan

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Ignore us today when we fight for what is ours—for what was promised to us. We will not be moved. You cannot strip us of everything. You cannot steal the prophecies that light our way.”

“The prophecies foretell a generation rising up to defend, to fight, to recover what was lost,”

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” —Henry David Thoreau

Grief is its own kind of intimacy, a bond of sorts between you and the one you lost. No one else feels it the way you do about that person you loved most. And maybe it helps to know someone reaches that same level of despair. That’s what family is for, right?

Both my parents taught me to know what I believe, to articulate it first to myself and then to others.

There are few things more affirming than someone seeing you exactly as you aspire to be—

for them to say I see that in you.

hate everyone who’s ever tasted you.”

“Your pussy is spoiling me for all others.”

‘The future is not a gift. It is an achievement.’”

“It means I’ll have just enough money to keep you in the lifestyle to which you’ve become accustomed.”

“Oh, you mean cup noodles and thrift stores? So glad that MIT education didn’t go to waste.”

“Okay. Just save me a corner of your heart, okay?”

“It’s cold as a witch’s tit.”

“If you saved me only to control me, then yeah.”

“Harder than keeping your legs closed, I’m guessing? ’Cause that proved really difficult for you.”

“I love this country too much to settle for the lies written in our history books. I love the Constitution too much not to

hold the men who wrote it accountable for the truth of its principles.”

And it’s not just what occurred in the past but what’s still happening. We’re still living with it, and there are things that can be done now. This is not about blaming for the past. It’s about us all being responsible for the future.”

“The harder I have to work for something, the harder I take it.”

“Lying is simply cheating on the truth.”

“You’re a lot to take.” “I seem to remember you taking me just fine,” he says, his voice husky. “It was a tight fit, but we worked it out.”