Dennis Lehane

“Brendan knew about the truth. In most cases, it was just a matter of deciding whether you wanted to look it in the face or live with the comfort of ignorance and lies. And ignorance and lies were often underrated. Most people Brendan knew couldn't make it through the day without a saucerful of ignorance and a side of lies.”

“I believe so deeply in the primacy of language, in lifting your prose to the highest level you're capable of and making your words symphonic.”

“I won the parental lottery. Most of the kids I grew up with either came from really fractured homes, or really violent ones. I went home to a very traditional, good Irish Catholic family.”

“She told him that he had the most beautiful voice she'd ever heard, that it sounded like whiskey and wood smoke.”

“I have a lot of rage about things that didn't happen to me, tied up with watching an immigrant, working-class father struggle to make his way through the world - and seeing how society was modeled to keep him in his place.”