Bayou Quotes

“Everyone needs someone to balance them out.”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“We don’t go hard and fast down here,” Ellie said. “Long and slow and laid-back is more our style.”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“Juliet laughed. “You all are crazy, you know that?”
“Oh, for sure,” he said with a nod.
“Does it rub off?”
“If you’re lucky.”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“Well, when we get hot there are a couple of other things we do,” he said.
Had he moved closer?
Juliet swallowed. “Like what?”
“We take clothes off,” he said.”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“Hey, the only person I almost shot was Owen,” Maddie said, giving her boyfriend a huge smile. “And if that does end up happening, he’ll forgive me.”
Owen grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head. “You’d nurse me back to health?”
“I’d make you alligator gumbo out of the fucking lizard that tried to take a bite of you,” she said.”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“If there’s anything you can think of that you might need from a real man with plenty of testosterone, you just let me know.”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“What If...”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“I’ai adore chaque minute.”
― Erin Nicholas, Beauty and the Bayou

“She saw night lights in the rooms of the babies who dreamed soft seersucker dreams, drugged happy with the heat, their pink baby bodies curled against worn out cotton, not fearing Hitler yet, their strong, tiny hearts beating in unison with the trees and the creeks and the bayou”
― Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

“He didn't want it, but he wasn't about to blow that spark off as nothing either. In fact, he was going to treat it with care and respect. Like a bomb.”
― Erin Nicholas, Say It Like You Mane It

“If it was an emergency, you would have hung up and called back. Over and over again. Leaving progressively more and more threatening messages about what you were going to do to me when you did finally get a hold of me,” he told her, signing off on the bottom of the letter he’d just finished and moving it to the side.

“I would never do that,” she said.

“No?” When she did finally send him reports it was always in folders that were named things like I’m Not Your Fucking Secretary and If You Ask Me to Get You Coffee It Will Definitely Have Turtle Shit In It.

“If I really needed your attention, I’d start texting. Photos. Naked photos.”

His entire body reacted to that. He cleared his throat. “I would definitely—.”

“Of my grandfather.”

Bennett paused. Then groaned. He knew her grandfather. Leo Landry was a great guy. Funny, down-to-earth, honest, loyal. And someone that Bennett absolutely did not ever want to see naked. Ever.

“You’re an evil woman.”

“Remember that.”
― Erin Nicholas, Crazy Rich Cajuns

“Jena Sinclair had taught him a couple of things about himself in the past few minutes that he didn’t want to know.
First, sometime in the past five years, a deep fatigue had wrapped itself around him – not the fatigue that could be slept off with a soft bed and a warm blanket, but the fatigue caused by a tightened harness that restricted. That promised no end to long days and longer nights. A harness of his own making.
Cole had realized another surprising thing too. Very surprising for the man who needed nothing and no one.
He was lonely.”
― Susannah Sandlin, Black Diamond

“There was something about Madison Allain that had always made him want to fight dragons for her.”
― Erin Nicholas, Sweet Home Louisiana

“What can I do?”

She took a deep breath and said, “Just hold still.” She put her hand behind his head, leaned in, and kissed him.”
― Erin Nicholas, Sweet Home Louisiana

“You don’t like to talk to people, do you? I mean, slamming the door in my face was a clue that was hard to miss. I’m perceptive like that.”
― Susannah Sandlin, Black Diamond

“Jena shook her head. “Paul needs a life.”
“Paul needs a woman,” Ceelie said.”
― Susannah Sandlin, Black Diamond

“Everybody has scars; some are more visible than others, that’s all. But anyone without a scar is someone I don’t want to know because it’s someone who doesn’t feel things deeply. You have to understand loss to recognize a gift when you see it.”
He leaned over and kissed her again. “You are my gift. I want to be yours, if you’ll let me.”
― Susannah Sandlin, Black Diamond

“We have unfinished personal business I do believe.” He smiled. “And I do love to make you blush.”
“It clashes with my hair.”
― Susannah Sandlin, Black Diamond

“After a moment, Amelia heard Rick humming as he marched down the ramp. It was a familiar tune. She raised a curious brow as she listened to him and then it dawned on her.
“Singing in the Rain!” she exclaimed. “How do you know that song?”
He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “I had sisters. Remember?” And with that statement, he burst into song: “I’m singing in the rain, just singing in the rain. What a glorious feeling’! I’m happy again.”
― Linda Weaver Clarke, Mystery on the Bayou

“She struggled with all her might, but he was much too heavy and strong.
With a sigh, Amelia finally said, “You win. How can I defend myself in a situation like this?”
“That’s a good question.”
With a satisfied grin, he got to his feet and said, “I’ll show you.”
― Linda Weaver Clarke, Mystery on the Bayou

“After a long while, Rick cleared his throat and pulled over to the side of the road. He then turned to her and said, “Amelia sweetie, a lot of problems are caused because of a lack of communication. When you try to guess what the other is thinking, then that’s when you get into trouble. If we communicate, find time for one another, don’t take each other for granted, and even share responsibilities, it will bring us closer.”
“Share responsibilities?”
He nodded. “Sure. A man who thinks he’s too good to share with the chores needs to reevaluate his relationship with his wife.”
― Linda Weaver Clarke, Mystery on the Bayou

“He strummed a few chords and then sang:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy when skies are gray.
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.
Please don’t take my sunshine away.
Rick sang one more verse, and when he was done, he winked at Amelia and smiled.”
― Linda Weaver Clarke, Mystery on the Bayou

“How come I’m always shopping for chicks and babies?”
― Suzanne Johnson, Frenchman Street

“Her voice caught. She swallowed and tried to goon. "It was the wallet--that's how I knew it was Michael," she said. "I bought it for him our last Christmas together." She started to cry again, softly and with a sense of deflation, oxygen leaking out slowly as she sank into herself, salty tears falling.”
― Attica Locke, Pleasantville

“Her voice caught. She swallowed and tried to go on. "It was the wallet--that's how I knew it was Michael," she said. "I bought it for him our last Christmas together." She started to cry again, softly and with a sense of deflation, oxygen leaking out slowly as she sank into herself, salty tears falling.”
― Attica Locke, Pleasantville

“By 8:30 the sky was dark red, as if we were driving toward a bayou on Mars.
"They call it a bloodscent," said Roger. "When the sky turns that color insects and animals come out in droves, especially the ones that lust after the smell of blood. The mosquitoes, the biting flies, chiggers, gnats, gators, and wolverines and wolves- rougarous, they call them around here.”
― Margot Berwin, Scent of Darkness

“The forest was dense, and filled with all manner of vines and rank undergrowth; the road was a vague opening, where obstructing trees had been felled, the stumps and rotten trunks remaining. Across actual quags a track of logs and saplings had been laid, but long ago, now rotten and in broken patches. As far as the eye could reach, muddy water, sent back by a south wind from the gulf, extended over the vast flat before us, to a depth of from two to six feet, as per immediate personal measurement. We spurred in.
One foot:
Two feet, with hard bottom:
Belly-deep, hard bottom:
Shoulder-deep, soft bottom:
Shoulder-deep, with a sucking mire:

The same, with a network of roots, in which a part of the legs are entangled, while the rest are plunging. The same, with a middle ground of loose poles; a rotten log, on which we rise dripping, to slip forward next moment, head under, haunches in air. It is evident we have reached one of the spots it would have been better to avoid.”
― Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier

“The horses, reluctant and excited from the first, become furious and wild. At the next shoal-personal nastiness being past consideration-we dismount, at knee-deep, to give them a moment's rest, shifting the mule's saddle to the trembling long-legged mare, and turning Mr. Brown loose, to follow as he could. After a breathing-spell we resume our splashed seats and the line of wade. Experience has taught us something, and we are more shrewd in choice of footing, the slopes around large trees being attractively high ground, until, by a stumble on a covered root, a knee is nearly crushed against a cypress trunk. Gullies now commence, cut by the rapid course of waters flowing off before north winds, in which it is good luck to escape instant drowning. Then quag again; the pony bogs; the mare, quivering and unmanageable, jumps sidelong among loose corduroy; and here are two riders standing waist-deep in mud and water between two frantic, plunging-horses, fortunately not beneath them. Nack soon extricates himself, and joins the mule, looking on terrified from behind. Fanny, delirious, believes all her legs broken and strewn about her, and falls, with a whining snort, upon her side. With incessant struggles she makes herself a mud bath, in which, with blood-shot eyes, she furiously rotates, striking, now and then, some stump, against which she rises only to fall upon the other side, or upon her back, until her powers are exhausted, and her head sinks beneath the surface. Mingled with our uppermost sympathy are thoughts of the soaked note-books, and other contents of the saddle-bags, and of the.hundred dollars that drown with her. What of dense soil there was beneath her is now stirred to porridge, and it is a dangerous exploit to approach. But, with joint hands, we length succeed in grappling her bridle, and then in hauling her nostrils above water. She revives only for a new tumult of dizzy pawing, before which we hastily retreat. At a second pause her lariat is secured, and the saddle cut adrift. For a half-hour the alternate resuscitation continues, until we are able to drag the head of the poor beast, half strangled by the rope, as well as the mud and water, toward firmer ground, where she recovers slowly her senses and her footing. Any further attempts at crossing the somewhat "wet" Neches bottoms are, of course, abandoned, and even the return to the ferry is a serious sort of joke. However, we congratulate ourselves that we are leaving, not entering the State.”
― Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier

“The hot, soggy breath of the approaching summer was extremely depressing”
― Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier

“Look around ya, sweetheart. Out here it's just you, me, and the bayou. The rest of the world can wonder, but your story's your own 'til you decide to share it." I look out over the dark water, thinking of how many secrets it's held onto for me. "That's the beauty of this place. Whatever happens here, the bayou won't never tell . . . and neither will I.”
― Chelley St. Clair