24
" But my cognitive brain fought back hard, telling me that I knew these scenarios were unlikely, that whatever rationalizations she might have for the staging of the four deaths we knew of, to say nothing of her manipulations of other people, including me, would prove inadequate. I even tried the habit that Mike and I consistently warned our students against, listening to my gut; but all my gut told me was that I had fallen in love with a girl who had brought me out of years of torment, however briefly, yet who was still involved in something beyond shady. Had it not been me, had it been just another actor in a different case, I would have called the behavior common enough. But it didn’t feel common; not from the inside… "
― Caleb Carr , Surrender, New York
26
" No, since we began this case, another possibility has presented itself to me--the thought that, although my mother cared for her children, their welfare was simply not her first priority. And the real question is not why that should have been so, but why it should have been such a difficult theory to either formulate or accept--why, indeed, it should have taken a murder case to make me think of it. After all, a man who makes his children of secondary or even minor importance, though he may be criticized by some, is hardly held to be unusual. Why should we believe any differently of a woman? "
― Caleb Carr , The Angel of Darkness (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #2)
31
" It isn’t really possible for men to understand how much the world doesn’t want women to be complete people. The most important thing a woman can be, in our society—more important, even, than honest or decent—is identifiable. Even when Libby’s evil—perhaps most of all when she’s evil—she’s easy to categorize, to stick to a board with a pin like some scientific specimen. Those men in Stillwater are terrified of her because being terrified lets them know who she is—it keeps them safe. Imagine how much harder it would be to say, yes, she’s a woman capable of terrible anger and violence, but she’s also someone who’s tried desperately to be a nurturer, to be a good and constructive human being. If you accept all that, if you allow that inside she’s not just one or the other, but both, what does that say about all the other women in town? How will you ever be able to tell what’s actually going on in their hearts—and heads? Life in the simple village would suddenly become immensely complicated. And so, to keep that from happening, they separate things. The normal, ordinary woman is defined as nurturing and loving, docile and compliant. Any female who defies that categorization must be so completely evil that she’s got to be feared, feared even more than the average criminal—she’s got to be invested with the powers of the Devil himself. A witch, they probably would have called her in the old days. Because she’s not just breaking the law, she’s defying the order of things. "
― Caleb Carr , The Angel of Darkness (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #2)
38
" — Говорю тебе, сеньорита Стиви, — в джунглях в своих странствиях я видел, есть крестьяне, что живут рядом с логовами и охотничьими землями тигров. Некоторые из этих тигров убивают людей — некоторые нет. Никто не знает, почему. Но все знают, что тигры, которые убивают, должны умереть, — потому что раз напившись крови человека, они не могут от нее отвыкнуть. "
― Caleb Carr , The Angel of Darkness (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #2)
39
" В моей жизни частенько бывали женщины, но ни одна не смогла вселить в меня те мечты, что я однажды разделил с Кэт на кухне у доктора. Сдается мне, все это умерло вместе с ней; и если кому вдруг покажется странным, что такое приключилось со мной столь рано, я лишь скажу, что те, кто вырос на улицах, всё делают слишком рано — слишком рано и слишком быстро. "
― Caleb Carr , The Angel of Darkness (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #2)