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Stronger than lover’s love is lover’s hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make. EURIPIDES
Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell. WALTER SCOTT, THE HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN
She still wasn’t used to handling the weapon. She was a New York liberal. Anti-gun. A law-abiding taxpayer. Perhaps she was none of those things anymore. Death changes you.
Scott gave her love. But, more than that, he gave her safety and security.
Aren’t you gonna give me a cheesy line right now and try for a kiss?” “You want a cheesy line?” “The cheesier, the better.” “I think your father is a thief,” Scott said, “because he obviously stole some of these stars and put them in your eyes.”
Some people, those with money and the ear of power, never pay for their crimes the way ordinary people do.
It’s good you’ve gotten some peace, but some of us don’t want to forgive. Can’t forgive. And that doesn’t make us bad people. It’s just the way it is. Some bastards don’t deserve forgiveness. Ever.”
“It becomes different. More distant, I guess. The pain changes. It dulls. It’s always there, but it doesn’t always rip your heart out, you know?”
“I’d find the motherfucker and I’d put a bullet between his legs. Then I’d go to work on him.” “Not everyone is a psycho like you, Karen.” “Don’t knock the psychos. We can be useful.”
Mourning is sometimes a dull ache that won’t leave, and other times it’s like pricking your finger on a needle hidden in a shopping bag.
“It’s a weird thing—justice. It feels personal, you know? Like it’s something I should have as a right.
It was easy to imagine what you could do to someone when you’ve got a bellyful of vodka.
Time moved on, but some things stayed the same: celebrities got caught up in sex scandals, kids were shot in school, the president was still making an ass of himself at press conferences or whenever he happened to open his mouth. The world was still in conflict.
“We were too late to save our kids. The only thing we can do now is kill the wolf.”
In a city of eight and a half million, loneliness is common. Most people were alone. Alone as they traveled through the belly of the city in packed subway cars. Alone as they weaved through the brick-and-steel canyons of Manhattan on sidewalks thick with strangers. Alone as they lay in bed at night with their problems and their pain.
Amanda was coming around to the view that what was legal and what was right were often two different things.
You’re not paranoid if there’s a good reason to be afraid.
In the Catholic Church, Saint Jude was the patron saint of hopeless cases, and that was how Farrow had earned his name, and a considerable reputation: because he closed cases that nobody else could, no matter how long it took.
“No, little lady,” said Donnelly. “When the paramedics took away the vic, he still had a pulse. This guy ain’t dead. If he makes it, he can just tell us what happened.”
Emotional touchstones in life create powerful memories that can live large again with a smell, a word, or a feeling.
no one wants a man dead like someone who knows him well.
If there’s enough guilt and shame, it becomes a fire. It consumes flesh like burning gasoline.
Trauma changes you. Losing a loved one to violence provokes a response. There are two common responses: either they don’t want anyone to ever hurt like they do, or they want everyone to hurt like they do.”
As the heightened experience of the murder diminishes, the cycle begins again. What emerges is a continuous spiral of murder where, as the pattern continues, the cycle accelerates. And while every murder delivers a sense of pleasure and climax to the serial killer, it is also traumatizing, even though they don’t experience it in this way—it actually deepens and heightens their psychosis, helping to create the state of crisis.
