Robicheaux (Dave Robicheaux #21)

by James Lee Burke

“War is usually interesting only to people who haven’t been to one.”

“People call you a cunt in public with regularity?”

“The writer who’s got the wife with outstanding bongos? She jogged by my office a couple of times. I hear she’s nuts.”

“Has anyone ever used the term ‘arrested development’ to you?” “Yeah, the marriage counselor who was screwing my ex while he was counseling us. You think I should take the deal?”

I believed their virtues were poured from a crucible whose heat couldn’t be measured.

“Freud was a genius,” I said. “That’s why he stuck all that coke up his nose.”

You can ease back into the dirty boogie or hit the floor running, but I promise you, the electric tiger, or your version of it, will come back with a roar.

Hollywood is a potential gold mine for anthropologists because it’s the only culture in the world where educated and rich and powerful people have the mind-set and manners of Southern white trash.”

CLETE PURCEL NORMALLY referred to cop shows on television as “the most recent shit Hollywood is foisting on really stupid people.”

“Fuck it” is not profanity. “Fuck it” is a sonnet.

“Your lawyer will tell you that ‘I don’t know’ is not the way to win people’s hearts and minds.”

“Can I throw up on your rug for a minute?” How about that for humor?

She has the grace of a chain saw.”