School Days Quotes

“Pearl was bred to be a hunting dog, before she made a career change and became a lap dog.”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“...When my nephew was three, [his mother] was worrying about getting him into the right preschool. Kid's fifteen now. He's under pressure to make sure he gets good grades so he can get into a good school. He needs to show good extracurricular activities to get into a good school. He needs to be popular with his classmates. Which means be just like them. Dress right, use the proper slang, listen to proper music, go away on the proper vacations. Live in the right neighborhood, be sure his parents drive the right car, hang with the right group, have the right interests. He has homework. He has soccer practice and guitar lessons. The school decides what he has to learn, and when, and from whom. The school tells him which stairwell he can go up. It tells him how fast to move through the corridors, when he can talk, when he can't, when he can chew gum, when he can have lunch, what he is allowed to wear..."
Rita paused and took a drink.
"Boy", I said. "Ready for corporate life."
She nodded.
"And the rest of the world is telling him he's carefree," she said. "And all the time he's worried that the boys will think he's a sissy, and the school bully will beat him up, and the girls will think he's a geek."
"Hard times," I said.
"The hardest," she said. "And while he's going through puberty and struggling like hell to come to terms with the new person he's becoming, running through it all, like salt in a wound, is the self-satisfied adult smirk that keeps trivializing his angst."
"They do learn to read and write and do numbers," I said.
"They do. And they do that early. And after that, it's mostly bullshit. And nobody ever consults the kid about it."
"You spend time with this kid," I said.
"I do my Auntie Mame thing every few weeks. He takes the train in from his hideous suburb. We go to a museum, or shop, or walk around and look at the city. We have dinner. We talk. He spends the night, and I usually drive him back in the morning."
"What do you tell him?" I said.
"I tell him to hang on," Rita said.
She was leaning a little forward now, each hand resting palm-down on the table, her drink growing warm with neglect.
"I tell him that life in the hideous suburb is not all the life there is. I tell him it will get better in a few years. I tell him that he'll get out of that stultifying little claustrophobic coffin of a life, and the walls will fall away and he'll have room to move and choose, and if he's tough enough, to have a life of his own making."
As she spoke, she was slapping the tabletop softly with her right hand.
"If he doesn't explode first," she said.
"Your jury summations must be riveting," I said.
She laughed and sat back.
"I love that kid," she said. "I think about it a lot."
"He's lucky to have you. Lot of them have no one."
Rita nodded.
"Sometimes I want to take him and run," she said.
The wind shifted outside, and the rain began to rattle against the big picture window next to us. It collected and ran down, distorting reality and blurring the headlights and taillights and traffic lights and colorful umbrellas and bright raincoats into a kind of Parisian shimmer.
"I know," I said.”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“talking”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“I wonder why I’m so uneasy naked,” she said. “Maybe it’s the gimlet-eyed lechery of my gaze,” I said. “Probably,” she said.”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“Perhaps the one absolute essential to growing up well is being tough enough,” Susan said. “Like us,” I said.”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“She rearranged her legs again. If she kept doing that, it was possible that I might begin to bugle like a stallion. Which would not be dignified. Beth”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“Susan of course would rather face gunfire than walk in the rain and ruin her hair. But”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“Perhaps you will want time to digest what we’ve discussed,” she”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“Well, I give you credit for optimism,”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“her hair. But fantasy”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“seem an honest man, sir,” she said. “ ‘Let be be the end of seem,’ ” I said. She smiled faintly. “ ‘The only emperor,’ ” she said, “ ‘is the emperor of ice-cream.’ ” “Very good,”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“If doing the crime is proof of insanity, and sanity is a defense against conviction, then the crime is its exculpation, and no one is responsible for anything.”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“She rearranged her legs again. If she kept doing that, it was possible that I might begin to bugle like a stallion. Which would not be dignified.”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days

“Just like human life. You want something so bad you make it hard to get.”
― Robert B. Parker, School Days