Early Autumn Quotes

“Too much positive is either scared or stupid or both. Reality is uncertain.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“Her toenails were painted. It didn’t help much. Never saw a toenail I liked.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“In the bank they did the same kind of stuff the fortune-teller and the bookie had done. But they dressed better.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“I could not love thee, dear, so much,’ ” I said, “ ‘loved I not honor more.’ ”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“Businessmen learn the way businessmen are supposed to be. Professors learn the way professors are supposed to be. Construction workers learn how construction workers are supposed to be. They spend their lives trying to be what they’re supposed to be and being scared they aren’t. Quiet desperation.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“if you lay back and let oblivion roll over you, it will be your fault.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“The point is not to get hung up on being what you’re supposed to be. If you can, it’s good to do what pleases you.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“The urban renewers had struck again. They'd evicted me, a fortune-teller, and a bookie from the corner of Mass. Ave. and Boylston, moved in with sandblasters and bleached oak and plant hangers, and last I looked appeared to be turning the place into a Marin County whorehouse.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“She said, “You are Mr. Spenser?” I said, “Yes,” and stood up and held a chair for her. She had a precise walk and a very nicely integrated figure and she sat erect in the chair. I went around behind my desk again and sat down and smiled. Time was they started to undress when I smiled, but I guess the smile had lost a step.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“barbells, a weight bench, a heavy bag, a speed bag, my suitcase, a large green cooler with perishables in it, a big carton with other food, a pump-action Ithaca shotgun, ammunition, some fishing equipment, two sleeping bags, some boots, a five-cell flashlight, an ax, some books, a machete, a carton of records, two shovels, a mattock, and one hundred feet of rope. I unlocked the cabin and opened all the windows. We started to carry and stow. A lot of the things were too heavy for Paul and everything he carried he seemed to handle badly. He picked things up only with the tips of his fingers. When I told him to take the shotgun in, he carried it awkwardly by the butt rather than where it balanced. He carried one of the shovels by its blade. When we were through, there was sweat on his face and he seemed red and hot. He still wore his pea coat. It was after five when we finished. The bugs were out and it was getting cool. Last fall Susan and I had bought a cheap stereo and put it in the cabin. I put on the Benny Goodman 1938 jazz concert while I made a fire. I had a beer while I started supper. Paul came in from looking at the lake and got a Coke out of the refrigerator.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“Lately at dinner there was always wine. The wine was appropriate to the food: Blue Nun; Riunite, red, white, and rosé; a bottle of cold duck. I’d eat the eye of the round roast and sip the Lambrusco,”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“You drink a lot?” “No,” I said. “Not as much as I’d like.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“Barbara Tuchman.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“You don’t know what’s going to happen. People whose lives work best are the ones who recognize that and, having done what they can, are ready for what comes. Like the man said, ‘Readiness is all.’ ”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“last I looked appeared to be turning the place into a Marin County whorehouse.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“Don’t be ordinary, Suze,” I said. “We’re not ordinary. No one else is like us.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“The Mass. Ave. Bridge is open... Some MIT students once measured it by repeatedly placing an undergraduate named Smoot on the ground and marking off his length. Every six feet or so there is still the indication of one smoot, two smoots, painted on the pavement. I could never remember how many smoots long the bridge was.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“Then why don’t you get married?” “I’m not sure. Mostly it’s a question of how we’d affect each other, I suppose. Would”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“We’re not ordinary. No one else is like us.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“A way of living better is to make the decisions you need to make based on what you can control. When you can.”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn

“tape on and the car trembled with percussion all the way to Saugus, where Hawk pulled into a Martignetti’s off Route 1 and bought three”
― Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn