Jeff Lindsay

“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.”

“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.”

“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”

“I was filled with dread at the thought my mind had skipped town and left me behind to pay the rent." --Dexter”

“I'm quite sure more people fake an awful lot of everyday human contact. I just fake all of it." --Dexter”

“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.”

“I took pride in being the best dressed monster in Dade County.”

“Now I know what it is like to feel like a total idiot.”

“The whole point of wearing a disguise was to be seen wearing her.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I enjoyed watching good-looking idiots looking at each other. A great spectator sport.”

“Rita was almost as badly damaged as I am.”

“Nothing else loves me, nor ever will. Not even - especially - me. I know what I am and that's not a thing to love.”

“Of course I had. That's how I do it.”

“If only I was capable of love, how I would have loved Harry.”

“Rather than see me or have me touch it again, it died.”

“She really did like me, the idiot.”

“Me, feeling. What a concept.”

“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.”

“It happens; incompetence is rewarded more often than not.”

“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?”

“I think that's nice, and if I could have feelings at all I would have them for Deb.”

“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.”

“Quirky, funny, happy-go-lucky dead inside Dexter. No longer Dexter with the knife, Dexter the Avenger. Not until next time.”

“And I was having too much fun to stop now.”

“It was such an unexpected and genuine smile that if I only had a soul I'm sure I would have felt quite guilty.”

“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.”

“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.”

“A man can take only so much. Even a phony man like me.”

“I had killed our careful relationship by driving my tongue through its heart and pushing it off a cliff.”

“In its own way the kiss had been an act of murder.”

“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?”

“Or was he saying, "Hi! Wanna play?"And I did. Of course I did.”

“Oh, I wanted this killer stopped, brought to justice, yes, certainly - but did it have to be so soon?”

“I was good at being charming, one of my very few vanities.”

“This was just no fun. I wanted my brain back.”

“It was almost enough to make me feel emotion.”

“I nodded with genuine synthetic sympathy.”

“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.”

“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.”

“It really is better to be lucky than to be good.”

“Since I am not actually a real human being, my emotional responses are generally limited to what I have learned to fake.”

“I was never more alive than when the Dark Passenger was driving.”

“I had become a perfect fake human, saying the stupid and pointless things that humans say to each other all day long.”

“I mean, really: what kind of person could possibly dislike me?”

“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.”

“What a terrible thing life can be.”

“It's terrible to have to depend on someone else.”