Quotes from book

Black Heart

“Mirroring behavior. When a mark takes a drink from his water glass, so should you. When he smiles, so should you. Keep it subtle, rather than creepy, and it’s a good technique.”

“She wants me to take out Patton.”

Barron’s brows draw together. “Take out? As in transform him?”

“No,” I say. “As in take out to dinner. She thinks we’d make a good couple.”

“We’re all dying, Cassel. It’s just that some of us are dying faster than others.”

“Refills are free,” the waitress tells us with a frown, like she’s hoping we’re not the kind of people who ask for endless refills. I am already pretty sure we are exactly those people.”

“Boys never believe I can beat them, she told me back then. But I always win in the end.”

“Ruthless. That’s my girl.”

“It makes you a different person, to not have a past. It eats away at who you are, until what’s left is all construct, all artifice.”

“You can't go around making plans that have you getting killed as a by-product. Eventually one of them is going to.”

“That’s family for you. Can’t live with them, can’t murder them.”

“She looks honestly upset, but then, I’ve learned that I can’t read her. The problem with a really excellent liar is that you have to just assume they’re always lying.”

“I did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I can’t. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.”

“You want me to say something? Okay. Sometimes I think I am what you made me. And sometimes I don’t know who I am at all. And either way I’m not happy.”

“. The language of love is like that, possessive. That should be the first warning that it's not going to encourage anyone's betterment.”

“Love changes us, but we change how we love too.”

“He runs to the sink to spit it out. I grin. There’s nothing quite as funny as someone else’s misery.”

“Don’t.” She looks directly into my eyes. After a month of being forced to avoid her, I feel stripped bare by her gaze. “You can be as much of a charming bastard as you want, but you’re never going to bullshit your way into my heart again.”

“Nobody ever really sees me the way I am, underneath everything. But she did. She does.”

“Some promises aren’t worth keeping.”