dennis scharnberg

“Yes, that’s right.  I am a revolutionary.  How may I help you?”

Tristan Holyoke, A Tree Full of Monkeys.

It’s almost dazzling, said Oliver, how easy it was to convince everyone.  That something called “debt” is actually wealth.  And that we should want to have more and more of it.

Del Arbogast, The Null Hypothesis and Other Stories.

“Happiness, Edna.  It is such a state of being!  You almost cannot beat it.”

Burdyce Goode, Philosophy of Vegetables.

“It’s Vic as in Victor,” he said, “and Tim as in Timothy.”

Corliss Archer, Boarding the Crazy Train.

By the post-war years, modernism had become academic. One was invited to matriculate one’s way to the status of cultural outlaw.

Titus Musgrave, The Enigma of the Box.

“Of course, even his best work is anemic,” said Mr. Moone.  “Aggressively anemic.  That’s what I would call it.”

Chadwick Graves, One Damned Thing After Another.

“There is very little time,” said Matthew calmly.  “Almost none, in fact.”

Giles Coxe-Coburn, Belief in Insects.

“Yes, Margaret.  But who actually gives a damn about your sanity?”

Jane Chetwynde, The Have-Not Faradays.

“If the odds are good,” wondered Evan, “might not the goods be odd?”

Kiefer Sythe, The Detective Club.

 It’s what wasn’t there that mattered.  It was a room full of absence.

Ellery Close,  The Erasmus Homicides.