Riding the Rap Quotes

“The personality and the ego scream, while the soul whispers.”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“What you’ll have to do now is ride the rap, as they say. It’s all anybody has to do.”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“There was a poster with the heading HANG 'EM HIGH that showed a famous hanging judge of a hundred years ago, Isaac Parker, against a montage of condemned prisoners on scaffolds waiting to be dropped through the trapdoors. Raylan would look at the poster, in the lobby of the Marshals Service offices in Miami, and feel good about their tradition. Not the hanging part--they had quit handing out death penalties in federal court--but the tradition of U.S. marshals as peace officers on the western frontier. Every time he looked at Judge Parker up there in the poster Raylan thought of growing a mustache, a big one that would droop properly and look good with his hat.”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“I'll give you something else to think about. Not very long ago he shot and killed a man and did it deliberately, at close range. What I'm saying is he intended to kill the guy and he did." Again the silence before Chip said, "Come on, he told you that?" "I felt it in his hand," Dawn said. "The one that held the gun.”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“She said, "Coming across the yard you had your hat off, but as you reached the door you put it on." "I guess I did, didn't I?" "You were being...I want to say official, and your hat's like a badge of office. You like to set it forward a little, close over your eyes." "I've had that hat eight years," Raylan said. "I never thought I wore it any special way, I just put it on my head.”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“Chip was worry-free, zonked on the weed,”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“Man, I'm the caretaker. He's staying while he does the work and I help him out some." "What's your name?" "Louis Lewis." "You putting me on?" "It's my name. You want me to spell it out for you?”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“He walked in, I thought he was a farmer, or maybe a rancher. He looks like a cowboy, that raw-boned, outdoor type. Wears cowboy boots and a hat with a curled brim." "The Marlboro man," Chip said. "Yeah, except he's real.”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap

“He said to Dale Crowe Junior, "I know you think you can drive when you've had a few. How good are you when you're sober?" This marshal not sounding like the usual hard-ass lawman; Dale Junior was glad of that. He said, "I had a Caddy myself one time, till I sold it for parts and went to work at Disney's. You know what I tried out for? Play Goofy. Mickey Mouse's friend? Only you had to water-ski and I couldn't get the hang of it. Sir, I like to mention that these three years since I took off? I been clean. I never even left the state of Florida all that time, not wanting to be too far away from my folks, my old mom and dad, except I never did get to see them." The marshal, Raylan Givens, said, "If you're gonna talk I'll put you in the trunk and I'll drive.”
― Elmore Leonard, Riding the Rap