Land of the Story Tellers Quotes

“The payments of revenge can be served with the bluntest kind of tools.

~ The Jackass in The Road”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“It had been just about one hundred years now, since any of the smugglers had gone over the notch. History caught up with them. All of them were dead.

~ Dolly Dagger.”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“Next to Joel on the beach was Martha. Two years back in time she had been Joel’s bimbo. That’s because Joel was still married at the time, and they were committing adultery.

~ The Last Straw”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“A German was looking through a blown-out window framed by red brick and seemed to be waving something. A block-headed Russian pulled up and shot him through the forehead. The blood ran down over his eye socket and dripped off his high cheekbone and seeped into the pulverized masonry fragments.

~ The Jackass in The Road”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“So when the Russians got the Germans in their U-shaped ambush, which is the deadliest of all ambushes of the ground forces, the Russian commander said to his men, “Remember what they did to our people, and the German’s sperm inside our woman without their permission. When we get inside, shoot anything that moves.“

~ The Jackass in The Road.”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“The jackass was lying in the road. He was paralyzed. His spine had been severed by gunfire. He had been moving. His lungs were filling with blood. Some of the blood ran out his nostrils and on the cobbleblocks.

~ The Jackass in The Road”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“The stylus of time was stricken. The miners were dead. The mines had closed, after the veins went dry of silver. The miners were below the ground in Lone Hill Cemetery.

— Ivy. ( told at Telluride Ski Area )”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“It was the morning rush hour. The crowd was coming up the stairs of Penn Station like ants on the 7th Avenue side, and a Jehovah Witness was having a hell of a time selling religion.

— Christ Belongs To The Whole World.”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“The brisk night had put a good chill into the concrete floor, and Mussolini’s corpse had stayed nice and cool throughout the night.

His decomposition state had been arrested, and all the flies had flown away to other places. After two men dug his grave the next morning, they buried Benito Mussolini in the Musocco Cemetery on the north side of town.

— Watering Cans”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“The assassin had crammed a note of white ream paper, into the mouth of Fajil Sajid Bhotto. It was written in black ink, and revealed the hate harbored by the killer, and a list of reasons.

But the police never leaked the contents, and kept everything closed and tight, and after all these years the murder evidence remained swept under the rug.

— Direct Object Formula”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“I’d heard it many times before. That the great deal of the staff at the RiRa put on fake accents. They weren’t even Irish. An English told me.

— Land of The Story Tellers”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“Fredes Salvatore Mendez was on his last legs. He was on his deathbed, on the second floor in the old section of the Hospital Santo Tomas, over on Balboa Avenue."

— A Requiem for Fredes Mendez.”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“It was very hot. All the soil was cracked from the sun. The Texas sun and it had not rained for a very long time.

— Texas Hardpan”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems

“Why did I live so long?" said the old lady.

“To set examples," said the priest.

— The Old Lady”
― Stephen Deck, Land of the Story Tellers: 24 Stories and 7 Poems