Gritty Quotes

“Always move forward. Don’t dwell on the if-onlys.”
― Murray Bailey, The Prisoner of Acre

“I've got no reason to live, but a lot of reasons to die...this is just the best one.”
― Ammar Habib, The Legendary Wolf

“We are only victims if we allow ourselves to be.”
― McCartney Green, Dandelions Never Die

“I’m not willing to deceive myself for false comfort, and I’m not willing to don the false mask of external indifference.”
― Ron Garan, Floating in Darkness - A Journey of Evolution

“He was dropped under a streetlamp, the only person left on the bus. A patch of mauled light. Gritty pavement, scarred with a million cigarette burns. Weeds and spit and oil. Place like this, the only glitter was the knife just before it sank in. Place like this, there wasn't any gold.”
― Rupert Thomson, The Five Gates of Hell

“I stared down at my hands and saw the blood coat them, how warm and real something felt when it wasn’t just ink and stains. This was life and I was holding it in my hands. I drew my eyes back up and beneath the flickering streetlight and the throng of drunken cattle, I saw nothing else but the dead girl. Somebody out there had taken her life, her heart, and there I was with her warm, sticky blood. Feeling the most alive I’d felt in years.
I had to find him. I just had to.”
― Charlotte Munro, Down by The Mausoleum

“It doesn't seem right to throw dirt at you when you're dead...”
― Sharon Sant, The Memory Game

“Another thing about pain - it renders you incapable of bullshit.”
― Gwen Mitchell, Cloak of Deceit

“I follow where the story goes. Always. Every time. Sometimes it goes places where I'm not comfortable... it's at those times that I just listen to my characters, hold on with both hands, and trust that my readers won't lynch me later.”
― Dennis Sharpe

“[She] had a habit of putting things in that way, as though she had accidently set your house on fire and had no choice now but to stand back and watch it burn.”
― Vu Tran, Dragonfish

“I’m fading, Bethany, I know it. I think that’s what happened to my dad, that’s why I can’t see him. One day I’ll be so see-through that you’ll forget I was ever here, just like everyone else has.”
― Sharon Sant, The Memory Game

“It was Dominick Gleeson, aka Big Dom, editor of the city's only newspaper, the Bohane Vindicator. Of course, it was in no small part thanks to Logan Hartnett that the Vindicator remained the city's only newspaper. Its masthead solgan: 'Truth or Vengeance', as inked above a motif of two quarrelling ravens.”
― Kevin Barry, City of Bohane

“They had this block to themselves. The windows of all the tenements on both sides were marked with the white X of urban renewal; they stood nearly empty, waiting for the wreckers. Within them the cockroaches crawled and the rats chittered, but the humans were away, infesting some other neighborhood.”
― Richard Stark, The Seventh

“Campbell Road, so he had been told by long-serving colleagues, and some of The Bunk’s inhabitants, was home to the most notorious criminals: thieves, prostitutes, fraudsters – every sort of rogue and vagabond drifted through this slum. Unbelievable as it seemed to Franks, some had settled and been resident a very long while. If a couple of women – one who looked like she’d had seven bells beaten out of her – wanted to set about a well-known brass, it didn’t take a genius to work out that one of their old men was playing away. Bickerstaff might be a stickler for doing things by the book but, in the great scheme of things, this was a petty domestic incident. The Bunk community had its own system of justice. Franks agreed with it: leave them be to shovel up their own shit.”
― Kay Brellend, The Street

“They couldn’t fight an army when they were nothing more than shattered nerves and gritted teeth. All they had was untethered defiance, all heart and hope, with nothing to back it up. So they would have to find another way.”
― Jo Holloway, Defiance in Green & Gold

“History at its best is a gritty, dirty business.”
― Sara Sheridan

“I would destroy the entire village if doing so meant keeping you safe.”
― Auden Johnson, The Sciell

“I can’t believe it.’ I whispered.
‘You can’t let him lure you back in, Felicia. He’s wrong. He’s wrong!’ Vanian pleaded, I could feel the quiver of his magic, the wisps that were fighting against the iron burning into his wrists, I could feel the crackle as it fought in the air, against his emotions, against his pain. I shook my head, was about to speak but Adam grabbed him by the front of his shirt; as if a few more tears and shreds couldn’t go amiss. The tightness of his grip paled the Faerie’s cheeks, caused the blood to trickle down faster, dropping to the floor.
‘My wife.’ He yelled, ‘She’s my wife, silverblood.’ With each growl of a syllable he accented it with a punch to Vanian’s face.
I couldn’t take much more. I jumped over and pulled at Adam’s shoulders, fingertips driving into the nook of his collarbone, pressing down with as much as I had in me, anything to break his hold. He recoiled and rose his hand to me, at first I flinched but I stopped. He wouldn’t hurt me. He wouldn’t.”
― Charlotte Munro, Requiem City: The Butcher

“Dark and messy... No wonder the guy at the desk stared at me. I look like a pre-revolutionary vaquero who just slipped off his horse – dusty, thirsty, desperate to be laid pretty between clean sheets. I am most of those things.

—Peter Arellano”
― Laurie Perez, Torpor: Though the Heart Is Warm

“The darker the shadow, the brighter the light.”
― Mike Skinner, The Story of The Streets

“All they needed for revenge was his mind, her body and one lucky night in Vegas.”
― Stuart Stromin, Wild Cards: A novel by Stuart Stromin

“In all honesty, it was hard some days to stave off the bitterness when I would think of the 999 out of 1,000 who simply said, 'Not my problem.”
― Tyler Wentzel, Stray Spark

“In all honesty, it was hard some days to stave off the bitterness when I would think of the 999 out of 1,000 who simply said, Not my problem.”
― Tyler Wentzel, Stray Spark

“For a few seconds, a thought creeps in. He could pull out his GPS and end it. He could hit that button, and they would come to find him within an hour. That's the easy way out. While looking down, a tattoo slips out from under his sleeve. Not Done.”
― B.A. Bellec, Someone's Story

“According to Dr. Angela Duckworth, grit is passion and perseverance toward long-term goals. [...]

Grit is sticking to one thing for years or even decades.”
― Benjamin P. Hardy, Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation

“Terry Kirk traces the fault lines beneath the greatest financial collapse in history. A rollicking good read filled with vivid characters and a magical sense of place.
- Michel Lucas, Founding Partner, Decima Research”
― Terry Kirk, Pitfall

“Pitfall by Terry Kirk is full of vivid, juicy, historic details--from markets to music. It captures the time period with authority and intrigue. I found myself feverishly reading long after lights out.
- Kevin O’Farrell, Management Consultant”
― Terry Kirk, Pitfall

“Pitfall literally take you away to the places that are described in great clear detail. If you close your eyes you can see and place yourself in the scene. The description of the financial industry was accurate and well done. Right up there with Boardwalk Empire.
- Brian Howard, Partner, Dorchester Wealth Management (Retired)”
― Terry Kirk, Pitfall