“ I loved it, but social reality impeded. Now I wander in here at 9 in the morning or so, and come back for a while in the afternoon. I am a very lenient boss. Donald E. Westlake
“ Found himself marveling at how many different names there are in this world. All individual, most pronounceable. Think of that. Donald E. Westlake
“ Now he was requesting as much microfilm as the librarians would let him have at one time, and was buzzing it all through the viewer with such speed that the machine was actually rocking on the table.… Donald E. Westlake
“ Since he’d been born rich into a family that had been a long time rich, he’d never known the need to suppress his feelings, so he pouted completely and might even have stamped his foot again, except h… Donald E. Westlake
“ Hispanics have a long tradition of defiance against authority. Come to that, the Irish and Italians and Jews also have a long tradition of defiance against authority. Thinking it over, everybody has a… Donald E. Westlake
“ Two solid weeks of beautiful weather. Clear sunny days, low humidity, temperature in the seventies, air so brisk and clean you could read E PLURIBUS UNUM on a dime across the street. Clear cloudless n… Donald E. Westlake
“ Story ideas had never been a problem for him, there'd always been more ideas than time to write them, he'd reject one perfectly good notion because he fell more simpatico toward a different one. But o… Donald E. Westlake
“ Bobbi doubted there was ever much future for a couple who had nothing in common except heterosexuality. Donald E. Westlake
“ Telling the jokes—was the setups. Why were that priest, that rabbi, and that minister walking down that street? Where were they headed? How had they happened to come together? What odd chance had put… Donald E. Westlake
“ An old Underwood office machine so big and black and ancient it looked as though it should come with a foreign correspondent attached. Donald E. Westlake
“ You're too cheap. You'd make me nervous to work for you. I'd come to you for a gun, you wouldn't want to give me more than one bullet. Donald E. Westlake
“ You wanna know what’s happening to New York? he asked. I tell you what you do. You go to a used-magazine store, you look at the covers of science fiction magazines from the thirties. That’s what’s hap… Donald E. Westlake
“ Since the conversation had deteriorated to a loop, Dortmunder abandoned it and looked out his window instead at the thin sunlight out there, until Murch’s Mom made the right turn onto Eighth Avenue an… Donald E. Westlake
“ Like the residents of Brigadoon, the people in the church drifted in a long and dreamless sleep, freed of struggle and expectation. Donald E. Westlake
“ In the cab going downtown, Doug believed he now understood the sensations felt by a person slowly sinking into the grasp of an octopus. Play dead, he told himself. But how? Donald E. Westlake
“ Since dispassionate self-knowledge is not a quality held in much esteem by the majority of the human race, Donald E. Westlake
“ A whole lot of ideas isn’t a plan. A plan is a bunch of details that mesh with one another, so you go from this step to this step like crossing a stream on a lot of little boulders sticking out, and n… Donald E. Westlake
“ Why, Wally, he said. Except for leaving out the part where Tom continues to be a homicidal maniac, it’s all the truth. Donald E. Westlake
“ Understood that in the business environment it was considered a gesture of civilization to offer the guest something to drink without booze in it, and probably a hostile act to refuse it, so he said,… Donald E. Westlake
“ Mother of the bride had been determined that her daughter would have a church wedding, and women who successfully name their infant daughters Tiffany do tend to get their own way, so an evening weddin… Donald E. Westlake
