“It’s just a story. Stories have to end sometime. Hell, did you watch The Sopranos? Sometimes stories just stop. Shit just goes black. Wham, bam, over. No more, nothing left, the end.”
She makes a face. “That sucks.”
“Yeah, well, life sucks, Scarlet,” I say. “You know that as well as anyone. Sometimes beasts are just fucking beasts, no matter how much you love them, Belle. It’s a fact. I’ve seen love bring a monster back to life before, but most of the time, the monster just loves you to death.”
“A white picket fence,” I say, something clicking after a moment. That’s what she said outside. You’ve got a white picket fence. “Is that what you want? To be proven wrong? For some happily ever after to come along and sweep you off your feet? Take you away from this bullshit life and give you your picket fence?”
“You’re an asshole, Lorenzo.”
“That doesn’t sound like a denial.”
“Is it so wrong to want to be happy?”
“Is that what makes you happy? Really?”
She noncommittally shrugs a shoulder.
“Well, if it is, you’re barking up the wrong tree,” I say, “because I can’t give you that. Don’t let the fence out there fool you. Around here, it’s just a fence. It came with a house that I bought because my brother liked it. Nothing more. But what I can offer, Scarlet, is to stand in your corner. You and I, we can be the best of friends, but don’t expect to find your fairy tale under my roof. You got me?”
She stares me down.
Sayfa 155 - CreateSpace, no problem Lorenzo, peri masalını yaşamayı istemiyoruz zaten kflfkh
My deepest pleasure was to lose myself in the world of a novel, and over and over again I told myself that the very best thing a person could do in life was to write a fine novel. I’ve always had a hunger for stories, and since I first read Treasure Island as a young adolescent I have dived deeply into the narratives that great writers offer us.
Sayfa 82Kitabı okudu
The hunger among many younger people for rules, or at least guidelines, is greater today for good reason. In the West at least, millennials are living through a unique historical situation. They are, I believe, the first generation to have been so thoroughly taught two seemingly contradictory ideas about morality, simultaneously—at their schools,
xviii - Norman DoidgeKitabı okudu
If you surround yourself with people who support your upward aim, they will not tolerate your cynicism and destructiveness. They will instead encourage you when you do good for yourself and others and punish you carefully when you do not. This will help bolster your resolve to do what you should do, in the most appropriate and careful manner.
Sayfa 82 - Rule 3Kitabı okudu
Time is the greatest weapon you have. Patiently keep in mind a long-term goal and neither person nor army can resist you. And charm is the best way of playing for time, of widening your options in any situation. Through charm you can seduce your enemy into backing off, giving you the psychological space to plot an effective counterstrategy. The key is to make other people emotional while you remain detached. They may feel
grateful, happy, moved, arrogant—it doesn't matter, as long as they feel. An emotional person is a distracted person. Give them what they want, appeal to their self-interest, make them feel superior to you. When a baby has grabbed a sharp knife, do not try to grab it back; instead, stay calm, offer candy, and the baby will drop the knife to pick up the tempting morsel you offer.
Sayfa 90Kitabı okudu
The Eighteen Types (of Seducer's Victims)
1) The Reformed Rake or Siren:
People of this type were once happy-go lucky seducers who had their way with the opposite sex. But the day came when they were forced to give this up—someone corraled them into a relationship, they were encountering too much social hostility, they were getting older and
Sayfa 150Kitabı okudu