The Bayou Trilogy Quotes

“The old man had been tanned by the light of too many beer signs, and it just goes to show that you can’t live on three packs of Chesterfields and a fifth of bourbon a day without starting to drift far too fuckin’ wide in the turns.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“The World Ain’t No Day-care Center.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Well, we got to do the right thing by this boy,” Sundown said. “The right thing.” Duncan’s neck relaxed and his head flopped back gratefully. “Uh-huh,” Lewis said. “Naturally we’ll do the right thing by him.” “Then after that,” Powers interjected, “should we dump him in the river?” Sundown raised his arms and shrugged. “What else? Carp got to eat, too.” Now comprehension made Duncan rigid, and he let his important eye flap shut, choosing not to view the most glamorous occurrence, the straight-razor finale, to this his gaudy, but already forgotten, life.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“stained raincoats, I reckon.” “And shitpaper stuck to their shoes.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“You know, I’m very near to bein’ normal, but I just can’t get over the hump.” “Well,”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Violence had lost the personal touch, the pride had gone out of self-preservation, and mere chickenshit possibilities of improved technology replaced it.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“MOTHER NATURE was laying down some Law out there in the bayou night, and as befits the order of things, large feathered creatures dove off high branches, swooped low and stuck talons in smaller furry meals, and bandit-eyed coons came stealthily out of hollow logs and glommed finned, scaly chow from the still, brackish shallows, while all those things that slither waited, coiled, for the passing appearance of any prey absentminded, and where the bayou waters butted against land and a screened porch overlooked the boggy stage for these food-chain theatricals, Emil Jadick sat on the arm of the couch and wrapped up a lecture that had been real Type A in tone and content. He said, “And if either of you fucks up because you ain’t been listenin’ to me, I’ll take you off the calendar myself, understood?”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“It was at this moment, chided by his old and present rival, that Shade decided it was time to revert to the shitkicker verities. Brazen dash, rough talk, and an ounce or two of mean were clearly required.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Ledoux's face was pebbled with mosquito bites. Forget the Cutter's and that means every needle-nose bug in the woods spare-changing you for blood like cornerboy hustlers spotting a strung-out Kennedy trying to score on Seventh. Like you got plenty to give.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Tip began to nod, then shook his head. "I could be eight kinds of crooked, there, piglet, but I ain't never been no kind of dumb.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“As the ample Hedda, who disguised her ampleness behind a billow of yellow summer dress, told it, her life up ’til she hoisted this very bloody mary in her hand was a convoluted tale of bubbly love gone flat, fine talents unnoticed and similarly woeful bullshit.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Bauer was a large, flat-topped man, with pale skin that had been acned and pitted so that it resembled a cob cleaned of corn, eyes the color of snuff, and the general expression of a natural-born straw boss.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“He was a man with a tin-ear present who dreamed of a rock-opera future.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“On his next return to this world, Duncan Cobb, oldest son, faithless cousin, cautious lover, and pal of killers, awoke infused with the lucidity born of no escape, and a mortal dose of honesty.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Mike Rondeau, a tall drink of a man sloshed into a squat glass, with a belt that could double as a lasso and a volume of ambitious lies that he called his life, came in the door and laughed.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“boys popped wheelies that landed very near the men, then exercised their audacity by requesting quarters to stop. “I could scuff your shoes for nothin’,” they said, “but when a quarter’s”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“of the ready green on a blue felt top. The gentlemen who had assembled around it for an evening of high-stakes Hold ’Em were well dressed, well fed, and well heeled, but now their mouths hung loose and their poolside tans paled. “Hands on the table, guys,” Jadick said. “And don’t any of you act one-armed.” A short man with an air of compact power, Jadick moved with brisk precision and spoke calmly. He pulled back the hammers on his archaic but awesome weapon and said, “Scoop the fuckin’ manna, boys.” “Check,” said Dean Pugh. He and Cecil Byrne, his fellow Wingman, went slowly around the table”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Shade said as he stepped down the hall, “is another of the ‘eternal boy’s’ major concerns, if you can believe it.” The officer sat down and swung his feet to the desktop. “I probably could,” he said, “but I think I’ll pass.” Blanchette leaned on Shade’s arm, a pantomime of crumbling health, and swatted at his”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“Blanchette stared toward the room in which Rankin’s future had been diverted. Yes, he could’ve made it, all right, Blanchette thought. Not with his next breath or two, but by the time he was fifty, fifty-five. It was up to someone else now. The end of his cigar had a thumb of ash on it, so Blanchette flicked it on the rug, then rubbed it in with his foot. He looked”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“The marquee of the theater announced that Candy and the Eighth Dwarf was “Now Playing.” Jewel wondered what it was that cities put over on folks that made them want to spend money to watch strangers have real good times.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do

“The only straight-up thing about cities was they looked unfriendly, and they were.”
― Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do