Ride a Cockhorse Quotes

“To anyone who might have deplored the decline in formality in men’s dress habits, not to say fastidious good taste, over the past generation, Mr. Curtin Schreffler of the Citizens Bank was a sight for sore eyes.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Mrs. Fitzgibbons handed the woman the paper and pen. “Larry didn’t die,” she said. “He just slowed down terrifically.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“If Mrs. Fitzgibbons had stopped to think about her rise to prominence, she would have seen this brash, theatrical rejection of protocol and of the social niceties as the hallmark of her success.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Instantly, Howard’s head snapped around. His glasses twinkled in the distance. Mrs. Fitzgibbons had determined that Howard’s reactions to his wife were a species of behavior not fully understood by science.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“revolver. “He’s armed! Get it from him,” she said. In fact, the violence and danger worked an instantaneous tonic on her spirits, as did the sight of Mr. Brouillette emerging from the struggle clutching in hand Alec Donachie’s immensely long, blue-black .38-caliber side arm. Had Howard Brouillette possessed any understanding of Mrs. Fitzgibbons’s mental state, it is doubtful that he would have handed her the weapon. The revolver in her hand looked like a cannon. “Who said banking was a dull business?” she exclaimed, to the delight and relief of those looking on.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Only Emily Krok remained grim and unsmiling. She showed Eddie the skinned knuckles of her two fists. “From punching cinder blocks.” Eddie downed his champagne and gestured merrily at Emily. “What a fruitcake! The day she was born, God was on unemployment!”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Mrs. Fitzgibbons turned instructively to Julie Marcotte and Emily. “This is the adult world. This is what you’ve got to look forward to. The day he married Barbara, he had a pair of my panties in his tuxedo pocket.” Eddie colored instantly. “That was a misunderstanding.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Where is Barbara?” she wanted to know. Eddie held up a staying hand, while regulating his breathing. He couldn’t reply for a moment. “Origami class,” he said, finally. “She’s folding birds, you mean.” Eddie nodded. A spray of rhododendron leaves clung wetly to his shirt. “This is what I’m saddled with.” Mrs. Fitzgibbons gestured disdainfully.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“If there was one thing Mrs. Fitzgibbons could not brook, it was criticism.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“The car could be going over a cliff.” “It probably is,” said Mr. Kane. The unexpectedness of Mr. Kane’s voice arrested Mrs. Fitzgibbons in the midst of her metaphor, and even required her to think for a second about what he had said. She sat forward, laid her arms flat on the desk, and eyed him incredulously. Before she could respond, Mr. Kane spoke again. “That’s what cliffs are for,” he said.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Her behavior was so airy and genial, in fact, that many, including Bruce, might well have wondered if Mrs. Fitzgibbons was not justified in the vicious attack they had all just witnessed. Orderliness is often its own justification.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“At that moment, Mrs. Fitzgibbons, by some standards, was perhaps technically insane.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Mr. Zabac listened carefully to every word. If Mrs. Fitzgibbons’s locutions sometimes involved the language of violence, it only served to dramatize her resolve.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“For the first time, Mrs. Fitzgibbons felt anxiety; it moved about her insides like something with cold legs.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“I wish my father could have lived to see the day!” Barbara cried. “You’re shaming me. He would turn over in his grave.” “The only thing that would make your father turn over in his grave would be if the television set was behind him.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“We’re going to promote like the devil, but we’re going to do it with taste. If you walk out of here with a toaster, it will be because you walked in with one.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“You look like you lost a war. The person who put you into those things should be shot dead.” “He is dead,” said Mr. Donachie. “They belonged to old Bobby Bresnahan, remember?”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Few individuals, probably in all history, have felt such a surge of pure egoistic excitement over their accession to power as that experienced by Mrs. Fitzgibbons as she descended the narrow marble staircase and glanced out over the great sprawling emporium of the bank.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“But I am happy to add that I was not nearly so convinced of the merits and rightness of my view yesterday as I am this morning, after hearing you out. I hadn’t known you held such sound, strong views on the matters that we’ve taken up. But you seem,” he said, “to have anticipated me. You knew what I desired from the outset.” “I knew what you needed.” She raised her teacup to her lips.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“When Terry stopped the car in front of her house and cut the engine, Mrs. Fitzgibbons was calculating rapidly what to do and say when she got him indoors. As she unlocked the door of her house, she blundered. “I haven’t been with a man in three and a half years,” she said. She saw the look of shock register in his face. She was going too fast.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Who are we playing?” “Springfield Tech. I could get you tickets, Frankie.” “Would you?” “I’d love to.” “I’d only need one.” “You’d be going yourself?” “I have a daughter, Barbara, but she’s practically brain-damaged.” He laughed gushingly at Mrs. Fitzgibbons’s remark, appreciative of the profane streak in her.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Larry had been like an appliance; he’d done what he was warranteed to do.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Unfortunately, Mrs. Fitzgibbons’s married daughter, Barbara, who often visited her mother on Saturday mornings, took an altogether different view of the noisy, militaristic display parading past in the street. Barbara Berdowsky was a person very much up to the minute in her social views, and in her manner of expressing herself associated a coarse tongue with the language of feminist liberation, environmentalism, and other such current enthusiasms. “They look like a bunch of fucking Nazis,” she said.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse

“Looking back, Mrs. Fitzgibbons could not recall which of the major changes in her life had come about first, the discovery that she possessed a gift for persuasive speech, or the sudden quickening of her libido.”
― Raymond Kennedy, Ride a Cockhorse