Charles Williams > Quotes

“The famous saying 'God is love', it is generally assumed, means that God is like our immediate emotional indulgence, not that the meaning of love ought to have something of the 'otherness' and terror of God.”
― Charles Williams

“Our crucifixes exhibit the pain, but they veil, perhaps necessarily, the obscenity: but the death of the God-Man was both.”
― Charles Williams

“And that was when it really came home to me what I was about to do. I was going to rob a bank, committing the additional crime of arson in the process, and if I got caught I'd go to prison.
Well, I thought, go on selling second-hand jalopies for another forty years and maybe somebody'll give you a testimonial and a forty-dollar watch.”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot

“You can take care of everything except chance. Chance can kill you.”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot

“Let us have all the delights of which we are capable.”
― Charles Williams

“I got both hands on her throat and there was nothing inside me but the black madness of that desire to kill her, to close my hands until she turned purple and lay still and there’d be an end to her forever. Let them send me to the chair. Let ’em burn me. All they could do was kill me.”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot

“The girl was in fact so patient with the old lady that she had not yet noticed that she was never given an opportunity to be patient. She endured her own nature and supposed it to be the burden of another's.”
― Charles Williams

“There was no way to kiss her like a good boy. You could start out that way, but you always ended up on the other side of the tracks. If you hated her, it didn’t make any difference; it worked just the same.”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot

“We were in the car with moonlight spilling into the other side of the ravine. “Do you love me, Harry?” she asked. “No,” I said. “Well, that’s a fine answer. You might at least say you did.” “Why should I?” “I just thought it might sound better that way. It don’t make any difference, though, does it?”  “No.” “I suppose you think I’m in love with you, don’t you?” “And why would I?” “Because I’m here. Well, let me tell you—“ “You don’t have to tell me. I know why you’re here. But you don’t think we’re going to get by with much of this, do you?” “Why not?” “And you’re the one who asked me if I’d lived in a small town.” “It’s all right. He’s at a lodge meeting.” “It’s dangerous as hell. You know that.” “I notice you’re telling me that now. You didn’t say anything about it a couple of hours ago.” “You didn’t expect me to think then, did you?”
― Charles Williams, A Touch of Death

“What’s the matter with you, Madox? You got a grudge against the world?”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot

“Her mouth was soft and moist, and she came to me like a dachshund jumping into your lap.”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot

“The hell with her; I wouldn’t go back. But wouldn’t I? What about later on? Keeping the thought of her out of that bleak hotbox of a room was going to be like trying to dam a river with a tennis racket.”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot

“He jabbed a forefinger at me. “You stick out in this mess like a blonde with a pet skunk, and you get wronger every minute.”
― Charles Williams, Talk of the Town

“Harry,” she said, her voice a little thick with the whisky. “You found the way, didn’t you?” What’s so wonderful about it? I thought. Dogs do.”
― Charles Williams, The Hot Spot