Then he laughed and she laughed. And quivering with the movement of the train, the dead man seemed to laugh too. - Jim Thompson

I told her the world was full of nice people. I'd have hated to try to prove it to her, but I said it, anyway.

What smells good in the store may stink in the stewpot.

There was too much of a sameness about the evening’s delights. He had been the same route too many times. He’d been there before, so double-damned often, and however you traveled—backward, forward, or walking on your hands—you always got to the same place. You got nowhere, in other words, and each trip took a little more out of you.