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Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz Quotes

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Famous Dean Koontz Quotes

“I've got evil in me as much as anyone, some desires that scare me. Even if I don't give in to them, just having them scares the living bejesus out of me sometimes. I'm no saint, the way you kid about. But I've always walked the line, walked that goddamned line. It's a mean mother of a line, straight and narrow, sharp as a razor, cuts right into you when you walk it long enough. You're always bleeding on that line, and sometimes you wonder why you don't just step off and walk in the cool grass.”

IfsWayGivingMeanLongSometimesEnoughKidsMotherDesireEvilLinesWalksWonderStepsCuttingSaintGrassScareBleedingRazors
Book:Dark Rivers of the Heart: A Novel
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“As an attorney, I assure you the law isn't a line engraved in marble, immovable and unchangeable through the centuries. Rather the law is like a string, fixed at both ends but with a great deal of play in it very loose, the line of the law so you can stretch it this way or that, rearrange the arc of it so you are nearly always short of blatant theft or cold-blooded murder safely on the right side. That's a daunting thing to realize but true.”

WayEndsPlayLawSidesRealizingLinesDealsCenturyColdMurderFixedStringsTheftMarbleAttorneyArcsUnchangeableEngravedCold Blooded
Author:Dean Koontz
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“It may sound strange, but when you're a kid and you're in that environment, for some reason for a long time you think, when the doors are closed in other houses, this is what it's like everywhere. And then at some point you begin to realize that isn't true, and books were really the educational system that showed me that there were many better and different ways to live a life.”

ThinkingWayMayLongBookDifferentReasonKidsHouseSoundRealizingEnvironmentDoorsStrangeLong TimeEducationalDifferent WaysWay To LiveEducational System
Author:Dean Koontz
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“If I had to write a rough draft, all the way through and then go back and start over, I probably would just stop writing. I wouldn't find that interesting. I would feel that I had committed so many things to the paper that I couldn't easily undo because one thing leads to the next, the interconnectedness, the sequences would make it very hard to change something that simply didn't work.”

IfsWayFeelsWritingHardNextInterestingOne ThingPaperCommittedRoughSequenceStarting OverInterconnectednessRough Drafts
Author:Dean Koontz
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“That was one of the most fundamental and sacred duties good friends and families performed for one another! They tended the flame of memory, so no one’s death meant an immediate vanishment from the world; in some sense the deceased would live on after their passing, at least as long as those who loved them lived. Such memories were an essential weapon against the chaos of life and death, a way to ensure some continuity from generation to generation, an order of endorsement and meaning.”

WorldWayLongOrderMemoriesGenerationsDutyEssentialsWeaponsFundamentalsSacredChaosPassingPassingsFlamesLife And DeathGood FriendFamily And FriendsContinuityEndorsementsDeceased
Book:The Bad Place
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“It's only life. We all get through it. Not all of us complete the journey in the same condition. Along the way, some lose their legs or eyes in acidents or altercations, while others skate through the years with nothing worse to worry about than an occassional bad-hair day. I still possessed both legs and both eyes, and even my hair looked all right when I rose that Wednesday morning in late January. If I returned to bed sixteen hours later, having lost all my hair but nothing else, I would consider the day a triumph. Even minus a few teeth, I'd call it a triumph.”

IfsWayYearsStillsEyeLostHoursLosesMorningWorryJourneyConditionsHairBedLateRoseLegsTeethTriumphPossessedJanuarySixteenSkatesWednesdayThrough The YearsMinusBad HairBad Hair DayWednesday Morning
Author:Dean Koontz
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“The things we worry about the most are never the things that bite us. The sharpest teeth always take their nip of us when we are looking the other way.”

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Book:The Complete Odd Thomas 8-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd, Saint Odd
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“Given enough time, you could convince yourself that loneliness was something better, that it was solitude, the ideal condition for reflection, even a kind of freedom. Once you were thus convinced, you were foolish to open the door and let anyone in, not all the way in. You risked the hard-won equilibrium, that tranquility that you called peace”

WayKindHardEnoughGivenDoorsConditionsLonelinessSolitudeReflectionIdealsConvincedFoolishConvinceTranquilitySomething BetterEnough TimeEquilibrium
Book:The Good Guy
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“Appearances are not reality; but they often can be a convincing alternative to it. You can control appearances most of the time, but facts are what they are. When the facts are too sharp, you can craft a cheerful version of the situation and cover the facts the way that you can covered a battered old four-slice toaster with a knitted cozy featuring images of kittens.”

WayFactsRealitySituationFourAppearanceVersionsCraftsAlternativesCoveredCheerfulConvincingKittenCozyBatteredToastersOften Can
Book:The Good Guy
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“Much of her life had been lived like a balancing act on a spearpoint fence, and on a particularly difficult night when she was twelve, she had decided that instinct was, in fact, the quiet voice of God. Prayers did receive replies, but you had to listen closely and believe in the answer. At twelve, she wrote in her diary: "God doesn't shout; He whispers, and in the whisper is the way.”

WayBelieveFactsNightDifficultVoicePrayerAnswersQuietDecidedInstinctTwelveFenceDiariesVoice Of GodGod PrayerBalancing ActQuiet Voice
Book:Intensity: A Novel
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“Truth is always stranger than fiction. We craft fiction to match our sense of how things ought to be, but truth cannot be crafted. Truth is, and truth has a way of astonishing us to our knees. Reminding us, that the universe does not exist to fulfill our expectations. Because we are imperfect beings who are self-blinded to the truth of the world’s stunning complexity, we shave reality to paper thin theories and ideologies that we can easily grasp – and we call them truths. But the truth of a sea in all it’s immensity cannot be embodied in one tidewashed pebble.”

WorldWayDoeSelfRealityUniverseFictionSeaTheoryOughtTruth IsPaperExpectationsStrangerIdeologyCraftsKneesComplexityImperfectAstonishingRemindingBlindedStunningPebblesImmensityStranger Than Fiction
Author:Dean Koontz
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“Too much mystery is merely an annoyance. Too much adventure is exhausting. And a little terror goes a long way.”

WayLittlesLongToo MuchMysteryAdventureTerrorLong WayExhaustingOdd ThomasAnnoyance
Book:The Odd Thomas Series 7-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd
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“Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations.”

PeopleWayReasonLife IsConflictFilledNo ReasonPoliteRight WayConfrontationBeing Polite
Book:The Complete Odd Thomas 8-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd, Saint Odd
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“Every day we make our way through a moral forest, along pathways ever branching. Often we get lost. When the array of paths before us is so perplexing that we can't make a choice, or won't, we can hope that we will be given a sign to guide us. A reliance on signs, however, can lead to the evasion of all moral obligations, and thus earn a terrible judgment.”

WayChoicesLostGivenMoralPathTerribleMoralityJudgmentGuidesObligationForestsReliancePathwaysEvasionMoral Obligation
Book:The Complete Odd Thomas 8-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd, Saint Odd
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“She might have been born this way, without an empathy gene and other essentials. In that case, she would interpret any kindness as weakness. Among predatory beasts, any display of weakness is an invitation to attack.”

WayHas BeensMightBornKindnessCasesEssentialsEmpathyWeaknessBeastGenesDisplayMight Have BeenInvitationsPredatoryBorn This Way
Book:The Complete Odd Thomas 8-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd, Saint Odd
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