Bo's Café Quotes

“.....there's a stinking huge difference between influence and the authority you get with a title. Any dolt can stumble into a title.....Lots of people with big-sounding titles have people under them listening only because they have to.”
― John S. Lynch, Bo's Café

“Control is an expression of superiority,” he says, “always using the power of position and title. That’s why you withhold permission from everyone. But protection is an expression of love.”
― Bill Thrall, Bo's Cafe: A Novel

“people don’t ever get fixed. They either mature, or they just keep getting more bent up the rest of their lives.”
― Bill Thrall, Bo's Cafe: A Novel

“What if there was a place safe enough to tell the worst about you and still be loved just as much, if not more, for sharing it?”
― Bill Thrall, Bo's Cafe: A Novel

“Okay. I’m starting to follow you,” I say. “But you lost me when you said everyone has shame. I get that some people might live out of shame. But me? Maybe arrogance or pride. I haven’t suffered ten minutes with shame my entire life.” “Then tell me this, Steven,” he says, leaning forward. “What drives your need to be right all the time, to defeat anyone in your path? What drives you to overachieve? What keeps you beating yourself up for not performing to your high expectations? What keeps you comparing yourself with everyone, looking over your shoulder, and putting down others? Where does that come from if not a deep, innate fear that you aren’t enough and others might see it? Only one condition motivates such behavior.”
― Bill Thrall, Bo's Cafe: A Novel

“Doesn’t matter how competent, intelligent, or accomplished you are. You’ve got it tucked away in there. And nobody can cope for any great period of time with the feeling of that nakedness. You know what shame does? It takes a particular violation or several violations from your past, something that really got to you, and convinces you the person you felt like in that violation is who you’ll always be, for the rest of your life. Sad, huh?”
― Bill Thrall, Bo's Cafe: A Novel

“The first two times I ended up in the parking lot and didn’t even get out of the car. I just sat there, angry, resentful, and noisy. Arguments at home, conflicts at work all rattling around in my head. And this horrible feeling that I can’t drive far enough to get away from it. Something is wrong. Something’s not working, when everything should be working. I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling. It’s like coming to a place in your life where all the slot lines come up cherry but nothing comes out of the machine. You sit there, hoping that staring will make something happen.”
― Bill Thrall, Bo's Cafe: A Novel