Triptych Quotes

“A man who has grown up in an orphanage cannot take a dog to the pound.

Even if it is a Chihuahua.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“It didn't take a Harvard economist to figure out that it'd be a hell of a lot cheaper spending money on helping keep kids safe when they were younger than it was to put them in jail when they were older. That was the American way, though. Spend a million dollars rescuing some kid who's fallen down a well, but God forbid you spend a hundred bucks up front to cap the well so the kid never falls down it in the first place.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“He always took lateness as being rude. It said to the other person that their time was more valuable than yours.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“In a rare moment of candor, he had once told her that being in a library was like sitting down at a table laid with all his favorite foods but not being able to eat any of them. And he hated himself for it.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Will had found out the hard way that it’s nearly impossible to go to sleep with a flatulent Chihuahua sharing your pillow.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Dr. Monroe and I realized very gradually that drug addiction is a terminal disease. It is a cancer that eats families alive.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“The older sister could have been an overachiever who cast the kind of shadow in which nothing could grow.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“You get to a point where you look around and you ask yourself, 'What is this doing to the rest of my family? What harm am I doing to my other children by concentrating all of my energy on rescuing this one child who will not be saved?”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“It was a triptych, three canvases hinged together to make one image when it was open, another image when it was closed. He had always assumed she liked the duplicity of the piece. It was just like Angie, one thing inside, another out.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Will thought of her time away from work the way he used to think of his schoolteachers crawling into their caves under the school building at night, lulling themselves to sleep with dreams of torturing their students the next day.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Amanda was probably in her mid-fifties, a small woman, maybe five-three on a good day. Her attitude filled the room, and she walked with a swagger that rivaled a bullfighter's. She wore a simple diamond ring on her wedding finger, though Will knew she wasn't currently married. She had no children, or perhaps she had eaten them when they were young.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Inside, he had forgotten what it was like to hear a woman’s voice, listen to the sort of complaints that only women could have. Bad haircuts. Rude store clerks. Chipped nails. Men wanted to talk about things: cars, guns, snatch. They didn’t discuss their feelings unless it was anger, and even that didn’t last for long because generally they started doing something about it.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“He wore a watch on his wrist, but only as a cheat to help him differentiate between left and right.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“the reason the middle class had it so good was because they expected things to be better. They wouldn’t settle for less than they were worth. They’d just get into their shiny cars and go where they were appreciated. Poor people, on the other hand, were used to just taking what was given to them and being grateful for it.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Michael swallowed, feeling like he was choking on his grief. “Fifteen,” he said. She’d just had a birthday last week. He’d bought her a stuffed giraffe. “She’s fifteen.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“him”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“The vase was probably worth more than he’d made since leaving the joint, but John didn’t give a shit about money. There were rich people all over the world who were living in their own prisons, trapped by greed, shut off from the world around them. All he wanted right now was his freedom, and he was going to do whatever it took to get it back.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Michael stopped at the bottom of the fourth-floor landing to catch his breath. He had given up smoking two months ago but his lungs hadn’t really believed him. He felt like an asthmatic as he made his way up the next flight of stairs.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“She had no children, or perhaps she had eaten them when they were young.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“She wanted to talk to the stranger who had kidnapped her son, to beg him to give her her Johnny back. She knew her baby was in there somewhere, and she would not give up.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“I want you to know what it's like to fall in love with somebody, to stay awake at night thinking you're going to die if you don't have them. All he could say was, I've stayed awake plenty of nights thinking about you. Worrying about me, she corrected. I'm not an old pair of shoes you can wear for the rest of your life just because they're comfortable.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“(John picked up a glass vase w/ flowers, dropping them on the floor). I'm going to call the police. (Aunt Lydia) Better duck first. (John)”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“For some reason, he still felt (the same), like (incident) had happened to another (name), his mind going there while his body stayed on the outside, not aging, waiting for him to come back and claim it.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“Spend a million dollars rescuing some kid who's fallen down a well, but god forbid you spend a hundred bucks up front to cap the well so the kid never falls down it in the first place.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“He fell into the empty seat at the back of the bus, half-wishing the lightning zigzagging out of the sky would come through the window and hit him right in the head.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“That was the only thing Lydia cared about now—money: how much she could make, how much she could hold on to. Four marriages, a son, a grandson, and all she had to show for it were these cold little objects scattered around her pristine mansion.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“That was the American way, though. Spend a million dollars rescuing some kid who’s fallen down a well, but God forbid you spend a hundred bucks up front to cap the well so the kid never falls down it in the first place.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“John had learned a long time ago that the reason the middle class had it so good was because they expected things to be better. They wouldn’t settle for less than they were worth. They’d just get into their shiny cars and go where they were appreciated. Poor people, on the other hand, were used to just taking what was given to them and being grateful for it.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“She glanced down the hallway, but Angie didn’t want to go into the bedrooms. She didn’t want to see where Michael screwed his wife, know that this was the place where he probably beat Gina. Had”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych

“small woman, maybe five-three on a good day. Her attitude filled the room, and she walked with a swagger that rivaled a bullfighter’s.”
― Karin Slaughter, Triptych