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Jeff Lindsay

Jeff Lindsay lives in Florida with his wife, author Hilary Hemingway, daughter of Leicester Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's brother.

Lindsay is best known for writing the Dexter series of novels. Several of his earlier published works include his wife as a co-author.

Jeff graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1975, and Celebration Mime Theatre's Clown School the same year. He received a double MFA, in Directing and Playwriting, from Carnegie-Mellon University, and has written 25 produced plays. He has also worked as a musician, singer, comedian, actor, TV host, improv actor, and dishwasher.


“I think people understand things different when they get older. It’s not a question of getting soft, or seeing things in the gray areas instead of black and white. I really believe I’m just understanding things different. Better.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“She stared at me "You have a message," she said. "On you machine."I looked over at my answering machine. Sure enough, the light was blinking. The woman really was a detective."It's some girl," La Guerta said. "She sounds kind of sleepy and happy. You got a girlfriend, Dexter?" there was a strange hint of a challenge in her voice."You know how it is," I said. "Women today are so forward, and when you are as handsome as I am they absolutely fling themselves at your head." Perhaps an unfortunate choice of words; as I said it I couldn't help thinking of the woman's head flung at me not so long ago."Watch out," La Guerta said. "Sooner or later one of them will stick." I had no idea what she thought that meant, but it was a very unsettling image."I'm sure you're right," I said. "Until then, carpe diem.""What?""It's Latin," I said. "It means, complain in the daylight.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“There is a simple, logical explanation,' I said to myself. And because you never know who else is listening, I added, 'And there is nothing under the bed.'" --Dexter”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I was filled with dread at the thought my mind had skipped town and left me behind to pay the rent." --Dexter”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I'm quite sure more people fake an awful lot of everyday human contact. I just fake all of it." --Dexter”
Jeff Lindsay
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“She had searched for just the right guy; sensitive and gentle and willing to wait. Quite a long search, of course. She was looking for some imaginary man who cared more about having someone to talk to and see movies with than he needed to have sex, because she was just Not Ready for That. Did I say imaginary? Well yes. Human men are not like that.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I took pride in being the best dressed monster in Dade County.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Now I know what it is like to feel like a total idiot.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“The whole point of wearing a disguise was to be seen wearing her.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“And so as much as I can, I care about her, dear Deborah. It's probably not love, but I would rather she were happy.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I don't do my job to catch the bad guys. Why would I want to do that? No, I do my job to make order out of chaos.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I poked at the white paper bag. There was nothing left inside. Just like me: a clean crisp outside and nothing at all on the inside.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I enjoyed watching good-looking idiots looking at each other. A great spectator sport.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Rita was almost as badly damaged as I am.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Nothing else loves me, nor ever will. Not even - especially - me. I know what I am and that's not a thing to love.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Of course I had. That's how I do it.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“If only I was capable of love, how I would have loved Harry.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Rather than see me or have me touch it again, it died.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“She really did like me, the idiot.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Me, feeling. What a concept.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I am unlovable...I have tried to involve myself in other people, in relationships, and even - in my sillier moments - in love. But it doesn't work. Something in me is broken or missing and sooner or later the other person catches me Acting or one of Those Nights comes along.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“It happens; incompetence is rewarded more often than not.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“No blood at all. I could hear that phrase repeat itself in my head, louder each time. No sticky, hot, messy, awful blood. No splatter. NO BLOOD AT ALL. Why hadn't I thought of that?”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I think that's nice, and if I could have feelings at all I would have them for Deb.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Oh, the symphonic shriek of a thousand hiding voices, the cry of the need inside, the entity, the silent watcher, the cold quiet thing, the one that laughs, the moondancer. The me that was not me, the thing that mocked and laughed and calling with its hunger.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Quirky, funny, happy-go-lucky dead inside Dexter. No longer Dexter with the knife, Dexter the Avenger. Not until next time.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“And I was having too much fun to stop now.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“It was such an unexpected and genuine smile that if I only had a soul I'm sure I would have felt quite guilty.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“But what could I do? Be stupid for a while? I wasn't sure I knew how, even after so many years of careful observation.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“In that tremendous flash of freedom, on my way to do The Thing for the first time, sanctioned by Almighty Harry, I receded, faded back into the scenery of my own dark self, whole the other me crouched and growled. I would do It at last, do what I had been created to do. And I did.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“A man can take only so much. Even a phony man like me.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I had killed our careful relationship by driving my tongue through its heart and pushing it off a cliff.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“In its own way the kiss had been an act of murder.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Why do so many people start their messages with, "It's me"? Of course it is you. We all know that. But who the hell ARE you?”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Or was he saying, "Hi! Wanna play?"And I did. Of course I did.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Oh, I wanted this killer stopped, brought to justice, yes, certainly - but did it have to be so soon?”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I was good at being charming, one of my very few vanities.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“This was just no fun. I wanted my brain back.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“It was almost enough to make me feel emotion.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I nodded with genuine synthetic sympathy.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“When faced with people who have very limited conversational skills and no apparent desire to cultivate any it's always easier to simply go along.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“The key to a happy life is to have accomplishments to be proud of and purpose to look forward to, and at the moment I had both. How wonderful it was to be me.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“It really is better to be lucky than to be good.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“Since I am not actually a real human being, my emotional responses are generally limited to what I have learned to fake.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I was never more alive than when the Dark Passenger was driving.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I had become a perfect fake human, saying the stupid and pointless things that humans say to each other all day long.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“I mean, really: what kind of person could possibly dislike me?”
Jeff Lindsay
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“It's always me, isn't it? I'm not really a very nice person, but for some reason it's always me that they come to with their problems.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“What a terrible thing life can be.”
Jeff Lindsay
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“It's terrible to have to depend on someone else.”
Jeff Lindsay
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