Favorite quote from your main character

Another vote for secondary school (or Grammar). Never used high school. As for knob, it's always knob with a k in my experience. Unless your talking about Nobby Stiles.

 

"Ah, the old 'if I wanted you dead, you'd already be' argument. I tell that people too. Then I kill 'em."
-Kaz, not buying that shit.

 

This is from the prequel to the WIP I've posted on here.

A bit of background: Tracey's a fairly new spy for an international (and fictional) Intelligence agency. Scott is her more senior colleague, partner and mentor (and, for the eagle-eyed amongst you who may remember my work posted on here - her future husband). He has a cracked rib, so is out of the heavier action-type stuff.

Tracey (MC): So this isn't a solo mission, after all?
Scott (Protag): You'll be doing the legwork. I'll be the eye in the sky and the voice in your ear.

 

Context: This guy's scolding his future self for going crazy after the future death of one of the MCs.

Gabriel: "You're a dumbass. I'm not even gonna use the "would they even want that?" card, because I've got a better one. Thinking that you can risk everything and expect it all to work out in the end without any heartache? You're just greedy. You want to win everything and not lose anything and, in service of that completely impossible wish, you ended up throwing away what I consider to be our highest value. She died, yeah, but she died trying to save you; isn't that enough? Isn't it enough that she gave her life so that you could complete the mission? I hope you understand that, when you went crazy and decided that destroying everything was an appropriate way to grieve, you spat on her death and everything it meant. You should know that the May I know won't die that easily, and that I won't ever turn out like you. Congratulations, you're a top-tier bastard. Go to Hell and stay there."

 

My favorite dialogue between the two MCs:

James: "How has nobody here noticed what a huge ass you are?"
Gale: "So nobody has noticed except for you, have they? What do you think that tells you?"
James: "That everybody else here is an idiot."
Gale: "It's eigher that or the obvious."

 

I have two examples. One involves my MC, but it's not just what she says but also the text after it. It's 1st-person, so I'd still somewhat consider it to be a "quote" from her. The second is not the MC, but it is said to her.

Example 1:

My attendant shook her head, but tentatively, I noticed. "No, it's not that. There is still talk of unrest in the city, but . . . do you really want to view an interrogation? It could get violent."
"I've seen enough violence, Seshara," I reminded her coolly. Of course, that didn't mean that I liked it. But it was the truth. I couldn't remain sheltered forever.

Example 2:

"Dear Kaina," he whispered, "you are still young. Once fire chooses, it cannot be undone. Not even by me, or any Phoenix to follow, until the end of time. Fire is a fickle element. It is life and it is death. It may destroy a forest and kill its inhabitants, but soon new trees grow from the ashes, and creatures that had burrowed underground reemerge. The forest doesn't choose to be destroyed, but it perseveres and grows back stronger than ever. Such is the choice you must make."

 

My MC was referring to what seems to be a standard line used by all cheating girlfriends when they're found out..

"Why don't they just get a stamp made? It could be handed down from grandmother to granddaughter on her thirteenth birthday along with some sanitary napkins all in a nice gift bag."

 

What "line" is this?

 

Spoken while the girlfriend is confessing her infidelity, regretting the pain it has caused him "... but I was thinking of you the whole time." It seems always to be that same phrase. About the third time you hear it, it really starts to grate on you.

 

This is in Graxis' POV, and is just at the end of seeing who else will join him.
Of course Red Wolf gives him shit.

“Da,” Red Wolf says from my left at the end of the table, and I look at her in surprise.

“What? Don’t look at me like that Major, otherwise I will beat your ass up and down this base,” she says with a chuckle.

“Yes ma’am, no that will not be necessary,” I jab back.

 

Protagonist: (cuts captive’s wrist) “That’s about two minutes until you pass out from blood loss. I can heal you, but you have to answer some questions first.”

Protagonist: (later gets scolded after the captive dies) “I gave him an ultimatum. He didn’t respond.”

 

I did have a story where a character said 'If I thought you were worth killing, you'd be dead by now'.

(Sorry, should've 'quoted' the post I'm referring to)

I probably come up with dialogue that has been used a billion times. But it doesn't really matter in freelance writing.

 

"Why? Why are you doing all this for me?"
"Because you started your first prayer to me with a thank you. That, and my godson asked me for help."

The female main with Lilith

 

It's not exactly a quote, more of a thought or a phrase, but it goes a long way into defining the character. It is.....

Monsters are childish things, except when they're real.

From The Dark, a story pf depression, and maybe schizophrenia as well.

 

"You want to be everyone's friend. I don't have that problem."

 

"I'm gonna miss your hot, robot ass!"

Said to another character, who is a cyborg, but does not, in fact, have a robotic butt. The speaker doesn't really understand that, though.

 

"I'm tired of being a necessary evil." --Morgan

"The lies you tell yourself are the lies that define you." --Isaac

"You can't trust Isaac. He's a white-haired bishounen. Guys like him always turn out to be the villain." --Claire

 

"Never let your beliefs become a dogma, for that which does not adapt is doomed to perish."

Dragomir quoting one of his ancestor's teachings.

 

After the meal, Challan put down his bowl and belched long and low. He arched a brow and shot her an inquiring look.

“I believe you mentioned there was a way I might profit from your sorrows…”

“Well, that’s a rather harsh way to put it,” said Dona.

“I am a harsh man,” replied Challan, with a lazy smile.

“Indeed."

 

Here's another exchange I'm fond of from a different story. The character, Garth Challan, in this one is the father of the Challan character in the previous selection:

"Sticky Jinx... You mad little man", chuckled Garth Challan. "The closer you get to death, it seems, the happier you are. It's a shame to see what my life's come to. To die with such a fool as you for company... My mother would be horrified, were she alive."

"Balls. Yer mother was a whore in Vatrek the Tarbrian's stable, same as mine," snapped Jinx.

 

Here is one more from a historical western I'm working on about a young boy on the Texas frontier of the 1860s.

I looked up at Jake and cussed him under my breath. Seeing him riding along there all straight and tall, with his square jaw and them big old shoulders and his curly golden hair sticking out from under his hat just didn't set right with me. Jake took after Paw in every way, while I favored Maw's side of the family. While he looked every inch the strapping fine young Texan man, at that time, not having my full growth, my looks tended more to small, dark and runty. Jake had these clear green eyes that looked right through you, while mine were shifty ashy grey and I had trouble meeting other folk's gaze when they talked to me. Looking at us going down that trail together, you would have thought he was some kind of prince or knight of old from the books of Sir Walter Scott, of which my Paw had a whole shelf in the cabin, and which I had read most ever one, leastways the good parts. Me, on the other hand, you would have taken for what the books called a varlet, which is a lowdown, mean little rascal who was generally up to no good. I guess, sometimes you can judge a book by its cover after all, for now from the wisdom of old age, I will allow them was more or less what each of us was.

 

What does "OMO" stand for, or do I not want to know?

 

“Ha-ha, smart girl. If I could've known that 30 years ago I might not be in this God-awful bed, sleeping all day and counting my last breaths when awake. But I’m old... and about to be no more, and I’m afraid of where I could be going, not only because death is frightful, but because I might deserve where I end up. Maybe it’s about time I just die. Turn that fan on would ya Deb?”