Patrick DeWitt

From the author of the acclaimed Ablutions, this dazzlingly original second novel is a darkly funny, offbeat western about a reluctant assassin and his murderous brother.

The Sisters Brothers

Giovanni Silva

We all of us can be hurt, and no one is exclusively safe from worry and sadness. 

The creak of bed springs suffering under the weight of a restless man is as lonely a sound as I know.

Different from the movie quote but I still enjoy it here.

I felt repulsed by Charlie then 'You make for a pretty picture.'

His lids were rising and falling like a pair of blinds being lifted and dropped. He shrugged and said, 'Some days we are stronger... than others.'

I could not see her but listened to her movements—her footsteps, her hands rooting through drawers and over tabletops; I found this endearing, her nearness to me, her busyness, and my not knowing just what she was doing. I decided I liked her then; I was flattered she was devoting her time and concerns to me and I thought, I do not need much at all, to make me feel contented.

'Why does anyone? It creeps up on you from time to time.'

Woof, sad intermission chapter. And she kills the dog! Like why though.

'I thought it was the dog's leg,' I said.

The girl wiped the tears from her cheeks. 'But it is the dog's leg.'

I shook my head and pointed. 'The dog's leg is tucked under him, do you see?'

You are wrong. Watch.' She whistled and the dog awoke and stood, and I discovered it truly was missing the leg closest to the bone on the ground, only the skin had long since healed over. It was a years-old wound, and though I was confused, I persevered: 'That there on the ground is the femur bone of a lamb  and not the dog's. Don't you see the animal suffered its loss some time ago and that he is not in pain?'

The statement angered the girl, and now she regarded me with just the same malice with which she had been regarding the house. 'The dog is in pain,' she insisted 'The dog is in no small amount of pain!'

The violence of her words and temper caught me by surprise; I found myself taking a step away from her. 'You are a peculiar girl,' I said.

'It's a peculiar lifetime on earth,' she countered. I did not know what to say to that. At any rate it was as truthful a statement as I had come across.

I felt two things at once: A gladness at this turn of fortune, but also an emptiness that I did not feel more glad; or rather, a fear that my gladness was forced or false. I thought, perhaps a man is never meant to be truly happy. Perhaps there is no such thing in our world, after all.

'I don't suppose your brother'll be leaving me a hundred.'

'You got all the romantic blood, is that it?'

'Our blood is the same we just use it differently.'

I turned and walked away. A half-dozen steps, and she asked. 'You want to tell me what she did for this?'

I stopped and thought. I told her, 'She was pretty, and kind to me.'

And the poor whore's face, she just did not know what to think about that. She went back into her room, slammed the door shut, and shrieked two times.

Another scene they used in the movie, the context helps more here though.

'It's just a thing that sometimes happens.'

'Can you go truly crazy and then come back?'

'I've heard a father hands it down to the next.'

'I have never thought of it. Why, do you ever feel crazy?'

Great quote in the movie, love it here too

'My feelings for you quickly changed, Mr. Morris, and I'll tell you why. You haven't a dishonest bone in your body. Typically, for example, when a man wishes another man a good morning, he will smile just as long as he is facing the other person, but as soon as he passes by, the smile immediately drops from his face. His smile had been a false one. That man is a liar, do you see?' 'But everyone does that.' I said 'It is only a small civility.' 'You do not do it.' He told me. 'Your smile, though slight, remains on your lips long after you have turned away. You take genuine pleasure in communing with another man or woman...'

The Sisters Brothers quotes

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