John DeSimone > John's Quotes

“She lifted her face to his, and he thought there was something new in the feeling of her lips against his, a new hope or a different kind of fear.”
― Roland Merullo, Once Night Falls

“Time wore all of them down, administered harsh lessons in humility to even the finest physical specimens.”
― Roland Merullo, Once Night Falls

“It’s like that John Steinbeck quote about how Americans never think of themselves as poor, but “as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” Everybody thinks they’re just one promotion or one lottery ticket away from having to pay the Estate Tax. They forget that the lottery itself is a tax on hopelessness and dreams.”
― Bob Seay, Dad

“Jimmy passes the threshold examinations with ease. For Bettina, the sky is falling. For Matthew, it’s the unforgiving way of the unkind world.”
― Michael J. Coffino, Truth Is in the House

“Still, boot camp methods often seem extreme, a platform for drill instructor sadism. The unrelenting prohibition against microscopic deviations seems punitive. The non-stop screaming gets old. The demeaning methods take advantage of malleable seventeen- and eighteen-year-old kids, who are ill-equipped to resist. And while even the most naïve didn’t expect boot camp to be a holiday excursion in the Caribbean, a lack of basic human decency that makes recruits feel small or worthless prevails, an excessiveness that seems to serve no purpose other than an ostentatious showcase of domination.”
― Michael J. Coffino, Truth Is in the House

“One kind of person is engaged in society without realizing it; another kind engages in society by controlling it. The one is a gear, a cog, and the other an engineer, a driver. But a person who has opted out has only his ability to express his disengagement between his existence and nothingness”
― John Fowles, The Magus

“No. That is the trouble. Pompey has made that very clear. He expects absolute loyalty. So Crassus will pose the question: Are you for me or against me? and then I shall face the politician’s nightmare: the requirement to give a straight answer.”
― Robert Harris, Imperium