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ced04af
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People are what they do, not what they say, not what they think, not what they pretend to be.
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James Lee Burke |
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44bf514
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There are not many places left in the United States where people can get off the computer, stop filing tax returns, and in effect become invisible. The rain forests in the Cascades and parts of West Montana come to mind, and perhaps the 'Glades still offer hope to those who wish to resign from modern times. The other place is the Atchafalaya Basin.
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James Lee Burke |
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ec64d5e
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A category 5 hurricane carries an explosive force several times greater than that of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
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James Lee Burke |
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5acf12f
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The human spirit is frail. People believe whatever they need to believe. I feel sorry for all of them.
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James Lee Burke |
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dacdeab
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Cruelty and sentimentality are almost always companion characteristics in an individual but never cruelty and love.
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James Lee Burke |
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d4b8eb4
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When you love somebody, you give up making decisions just for yourself.
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James Lee Burke |
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42a3249
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documented in a security file was of no concern to him. The fact that a man like Joe Tex could have access to it
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James Lee Burke |
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f85cb92
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I had learned long ago that resolution by itself is not enough; we are what we do, not what we think and feel.
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James Lee Burke |
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2131df8
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As a southerner I had been brought up to believe that through conditioning and experience you could accept with some measure of tranquility any of the flaws in the human situation. But death is one flaw that always lands like a fist in the center of the forehead. No matter how many times you see it, or smell its gray rotting odor, or come close to buying it yourself, each time is always like the first. No amount of earlier experience prepar..
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James Lee Burke |
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6bb1814
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Hope was the light that allowed man to prevail in the worst of circumstances. But it also could become the narcotic of the self-deluded and the naive.
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James Lee Burke |
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87a63e2
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You pull on dat 'gator's tail, he gonna clean your kneecaps, him.
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James Lee Burke |
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71f97b9
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As with all megalomaniacs, he had no handles. He was the type of man the Spanish call sin dios, sin verguenza, without God or shame.
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James Lee Burke |
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802a02b
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The reason people don't buy conspiracy theories is they think 'conspiracy' means everybody's on the same program. That's not how it works. Everybody's got a different program. They just all want the same guy dead. Socrates was a gadfly, but I bet he took time out to screw somebody's wife.
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murder
socrates
conspiracy-theories
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James Lee Burke |
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6640d13
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Then I saw the consuming nature of her fear, her willingness to believe that exploitative charlatans could change her fate or really cared what happened to her, the dread and angst that congealed like a cold vapor around her heart when she awoke each morning, one day closer to the injection table at Angola.
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James Lee Burke |
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26981a4
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Thinking at night isn't good for anybody.
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James Lee Burke |
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83c97d3
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A tanker truck appeared far down the wavy surface of the highway, headlights on, its weight and shimmering cylindrical shape and dedicated purpose so great and unrelenting that it seemed to move and jitter against the sun's afterglow without sound or mechanically driven power, sustained by its own momentum, as though the truck had a destiny that had been planned long ago.
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James Lee Burke |
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e3a72f6
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Hackberry tried to convince himself that Collins was dead, his body long ago eaten by coyotes or lost inside the bowels of the earth. Regardless, Hackberry told himself, Collins belonged in the past or the place in the collective unconscious where most demons had their origins. If evil was actually a separate and self-sustaining entity, he thought, its manifestation was in the nationalistic wars that not only produced the greatest suffering..
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James Lee Burke |
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a6a687c
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if you haven't noticed, the United States government is the biggest weapons manufacturer in the world.
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James Lee Burke |
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e0ae88b
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each morning is a blessing, as votive in nature as a communion wafer raised to the sky.
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James Lee Burke |
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8ef502d
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THE TAILINGS OF the monsoon season moved across the sun that evening, darkening and wetting the land and lighting the sky with electricity that quivered and disappeared between the buttes and the clouds.
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James Lee Burke |
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57178b8
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what do you say to people who are doing their best when their best is not enough?
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James Lee Burke |
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bbcba58
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Women are the perfect creation. I don't care who hears that. Even before I hit puberty, they lived nightly in my dreams, and I have the feeling they'll live with me in the grave.
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James Lee Burke |
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97ae83e
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The Great Whore of Babylon is a commanding mistress. Once she widens her thighs and takes you inside her, she never lets go.
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James Lee Burke |
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60668e6
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More important, it's a place where there are no victims. Everyone there knows the rules and the
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James Lee Burke |
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b875643
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spent the rest of the afternoon in my room. A faucet was ticking in the bathroom as loudly as a mechanical clock, with the same sense of urgency and waste. I tried to tighten the
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James Lee Burke |
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18e4f9b
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How do you get mad at a man who speaks in Petrarchan sonnets?
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James Lee Burke |
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3672592
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According to legend, he had worn elegant clothes and spoken Parisian French and had his land and wealth stolen from him by carpetbaggers after the war.
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James Lee Burke |
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53312ad
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IN MY OPINION, one of the great follies in the world is to put yourself inside the head of dysfunctional people. The mistake we usually make is to assume there is a rationale for their behavior. In most cases, there is none.
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James Lee Burke |
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3598475
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Those are props from a film we made about a serial killer." He gave me the title and named the actors and the directors. My head was throbbing. I couldn't process"
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James Lee Burke |
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cbaa88f
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The advantage of having a little knowledge about the classical world is that few other people do. The second advantage is your awareness that every problem facing us today has already occurred many times previously, and the behavior of the players is always predictable and the consequences are always the same.
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James Lee Burke |
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c2fcbb4
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How many major decisions did you actually make?
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James Lee Burke |
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e2b92c7
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go with the wind, all of us twirling among young people who wore flowers in their hair, a church bell clanging without stop in a Spanish mission. Roll on forever, Woody.
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James Lee Burke |
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641ee6e
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I also smell it on you.
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James Lee Burke |
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9b6f138
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We had little money but didn't think of ourselves as poor. Our vision, if I can call it that, was not materialistic. If we had a concept about ourselves, it was egalitarian, although we would not have known what that word meant. We spoke French entirely. There was a bond between Cajuns and people of color. Cajuns didn't travel, because they believed they lived in the best place on earth. But somehow the worst in us, or outside of us, assert..
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James Lee Burke |
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e5ca878
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from which I had graduated in 1960 with a teacher's certificate and a degree in English.
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James Lee Burke |
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ef6049a
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eyes like light trapped in sherry,
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James Lee Burke |
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ebaa423
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We're going to call him Mr. Adorable. No, we're going to call him Snuggs,
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James Lee Burke |
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e49faac
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Bienvenu, mon raton laveur et votre tee amis, aussi.
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James Lee Burke |
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ec24a36
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I've got a worse scenario, one I can't get out of my head sometimes," Clete said. "I wake up with it in the middle of the night. Some mornings, too. That's when it really gets bad." "What does?" "The dream. I dream we're all dead. We fucked up while we were alive and now we're stacking time in a place where there're no answers, only questions that drive you crazy. I went to a shrink about it." "What did he say?" "Nothing. I didn't give him ..
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James Lee Burke |
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496f19c
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The party is a grand one and infinite in nature and like the music of the spheres thunderous in its presence, and I realized finally that the invitation to it comes with the sunrise and a clear eye and a good heart and the knowledge that we're already inside eternity and need not fear any longer.
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James Lee Burke |
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58c1447
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God, don't let me be an old fool, I prayed.
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James Lee Burke |
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1d769b1
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Two kinds of cops eat their gun: the corrupt ones and the ones who let the dead lay claim upon the quick.
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James Lee Burke |
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fcae3a7
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In a half hour I could kick open a furnace door and fling into the flames all the snakes and squeaking bats that lived inside me. Except the next morning they would writhe with new life in the ashes and come back home, stinking and hungry.
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James Lee Burke |
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49319c7
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Maybe he would come back one day. Or maybe not. Back then, people had a way of walking down a tar road and crossing through a pool of heat and disappearing forever.
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James Lee Burke |