Quotes from Paul Levine

Getting Steve to open up was a lot like opening a jar of martini olives. It helps if you bang on his lid a few times.

You leave a little bit of yourself behind in every case," Ray Pincher said. "Not that you want to, but that the practice of law demands it." "True enough," I said. "There's a lot of me smeared on a lot of courtroom floors.

12. When a man and woman are in total sync—thinking each other's thoughts, making each other laugh, bringing each other joy—they've hit the sweet spot, and just being together is better than . . . almost as good as sex.

A doctor asks a patient how much he drinks and how often he has sex. To get the truth, multiply the former by two and divide the latter by three. The waiter brought our broiled snapper

He gave me a lecture about the power of pounding the pavement, even in these days when computers and cell towers and security cameras keep track of what we eat and drink, where we travel and sleep, who we screw, when we leave the house, and down what forbidden road Google has taken us.

bring on your minions. I'm always outnumbered but never outgunned.

You raise your child the best you can. You release the child into the world, like launching a toy sailboat in a pond. Except the world is not a placid pond. More often, it is a raging sea, and life a perfect storm of the unexpected crashing head-on into the unbearable. There is no way to prepare the child for such a world because your own personal crises, traumas and failures are just that, your own. Your child, as you will belatedly learn, is not you.

South Florida, home to shallow traditions and feigned loyalties, fast-buck artists and fly-by-night businesses.

Federal judges are kings and queens. They are appointed for life. No messy elections, no grubbing for lawyers' campaign contributions. They sit on thrones above the lowly members of their kingdom and are served by a royal retinue of law clerks, judicial assistants, court clerks, jury clerks, courtroom deputies, administrators, and, for all I know, court jesters.

thought then, an itchy little one in the back of my brain, as scary as the pop when a ligament tears. Why isn't Victoria Lord my partner . . . in law and in life? -10- True

The buzzards congregated around the courthouse and on the upper ledges of the Tuttle Financial Center, where for eighty dollars a square foot, the lawyers, accountants, and bankers expected a better view than bird shit two feet deep. Building management installed sonar devices that supposedly made unfriendly bird sounds. Instead of being frightened, the buzzards were turned on; they tried mating with the sonar boxes.

The gunshot hit Nicolai Gorev squarely between the eyes. His head snapped back, then whipped forward, and he toppled face-first onto his desk.

When the law doesn't work, you gotta work the law.

Sometimes silence is the best question.

But that's okay, he thought. If your client is truly innocent, the pressure to win is overwhelming. But a guilty client? Hey, if you lose, justice is done.

party. I'm long gone from that scene.

8. Love is chemistry and

undeserved guilt is just another form of indulgent self-pity.

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.

He's a mix of bulldog and something else, maybe donkey, and has the personality of a New York cabdriver.

Find out what the cops know before you tell them your version. And always call your lawyer!

Si quieres qué Dios se ría, dile tus planes.

American beer is weak and watery, and like network television, is calculated to appeal to the most folks while offending the fewest. It's the lowest common denominator of brew.

Más vale matar a la primera rata antes de que la casa se llene de ellas.