“ The phone rang. Softly, in actuality, yet it seemed loud and ominous, as phones do at night in dark hotel rooms. Jim Thompson
“ If I had to marry someone, it wouldn't be a bossy little gal with a tongue like barbed-wire and a mind about as narrow. Jim Thompson
“ She wasn't much over five feet and a hundred pounds, and she looked a little scrawny around the neck and ankles. But that was all right. It was perfectly all right. The good Lord had known just where… Jim Thompson
“ I'd been chasing females all my life, not paying no mind to the fact that whatever's got tail at one end has teeth at the other, and now I was getting chomped. Jim Thompson
“ I looked at her, with her hair spilled out on the pillows and the warmth of her body warming mine. And I thought, god-dang, if this ain't a heck of a way to be in bed with a pretty woman. The two of y… Jim Thompson
“ I kissed her, a long hard kiss. Because baby didn't know it, but baby was dead, and in a way I couldn't have loved her more. Jim Thompson
“ People looking for easy answers to big problems. People that blame the Jews or colored folks for all the bad things that happen to ‘em. People that can’t realize that a heck of a lot of things are bou… Jim Thompson
“ You go into the office and take a book or two from the shelves. You read a few lines, like your life depended on reading 'em right. But you know your life doesn't depend on anything that makes sense,… Jim Thompson
“ I'd forgotten about it, and now I forgot it again. There are things that have to be forgotten if you want to go on living. Jim Thompson
“ The world was a shitpot with a barbed-wire handle and the further he could kick it the better he liked it. Jim Thompson
“ I sat down in a booth, and the waitress shoved a menu in front of me. There wasn’t anything on it that sounded good, and anyway, one look at her and my stomach turned flipflops… Every goddamned restau… Jim Thompson
“ If we all had what we wanted to eat... We'd have inflation in the toilet paper industry. Jim Thompson
“ You’ve got forever, but that’s no time at all. You’ve got forever; and somehow you can’t do much with it. You’ve got forever; and it’s a mile wide and an inch deep and full of alligators. Jim Thompson
“ I finished the ale, started to order a third one, and decided against it. I'd had enough. More than enough. Or I never would have. You take just so much from a bottle, and then you stop taking. From t… Jim Thompson
“ I ain't saying you're a liar, because that wouldn't be polite. But I'll tell you this, ma'am. If I loved liars, I'd hug you to death. Jim Thompson
“ He kept his back turned and his eyes closed, feeling no shame or anger but only an increasing sickness of soul. Jim Thompson
