“Well, it just figures," Younger told him, like a man explaining his religion.”

“I'm going to drink his blood, I'm going to chew up his heart and spit it into the gutter for the dogs to raise a leg at. I'm going to peel the skin off him and rip out his veins and hang him with them.”

“The office women looked at him and shivered. They knew he was a bastard, they his big hands were born to slap with, they knew his face would never break into a smile when he looked at a woman. They knew what he was, they thanked God for their husbands, and still they shivered. Because they knew how he would fall on a woman in the night. Like a tree".”

“When the guy with asthma finally came in from the fire escape, Parker rabbit-punched him and took his gun away.”

“When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man.”

“If you leave me here," the guy on the floor said, "he'll kill me tomorrow morning." Parker looked at him. "So you've still got tonight," he said.”

“Parker spent two weeks on the white sand beach at Biloxi, and on a white sandy bitch named Belle.”