Deanna Raybourn

“Only women are ever called persnickety,” Mary Alice said. “Men get to be ‘detail oriented.’ ”

It’s a comfortable place, mediocrity. Never pushing oneself to the limit to see what you can take.

Never staring down your fears, never reaching into yourself to find that last bit of courage. You don’t even know what it is that you are made of—and what’s more, you seem distinctly uninterested in finding out. You do just enough to get by

You took my Nazi, Billie

And then the bastard smiled at me. He smiled the same smile I’d seen a thousand times, a hundred thousand. The smile that said, I know best. The smile that said, I’m better than you. The smile that said, I’m safe here and you’re not. The smile that said I have a dick, so I win.

A nervous hand is a hand that will accidentally pull the trigger

It was dark in the garden, just before dawn, when the air is grey and the nightbirds are singing. They were tired, those nightbirds, and their song was quieter now. But they were still singing, and they went on singing until dawn broke over the trees.