Quotes from Charlie Huston

Once we understand how they think, we can predict their behaviour. And once we predict it well, we can manipulate it. That is diplomacy.

He has one of those heads people think about cutting off." "Yes. He does.

That's what happens when you get a regular job, other people's shit becomes your problem. 'Course, by the time you got that figured, it's up around your ears and you're just trying to keep your [expletive]ing mouth shut.

I feel like I'm forgetting something. Vyrus. Clans. Zombies. Stay out of the sun. Don't get shot. Abandon your life. Drink blood to survive. No, guess that pretty much covers it.

If I saw something once that I can't explain, that doesn't make them real. And if a trick of the dark gave me a chill, that doesn't make them real. And if a madman says what's at the core of us all is a senseless, flapping quiver of black shade, that's just one more reason not to believe.

Pain cannot be ignored. However, it can be endured. When necessary, a great deal of pain can be endured. Just ask my mother.

Yeah, good to see you too. Her hand stays on the gun. "Did I say it was good to see you, Joe? "No, but I always try to read between the lines. Figured you going for your gun was how you express affection these days.

What's inside is inside for a reason. What's hidden is hidden for a reason. What's buried is buried for a reason.

Like I was ever normal. Like I was ever any different from how I am now. A cure won't make me better. It'll just make me more like a regular son of a bitch. Like the Vyrus makes you into something else. It doesn't. If you get it, if you survive, it's because you were already the kind of person who will drink blood.

Course you can't fucking see, buddy, it's darker than a nun's virgin anus down here.

The world doesn't just jump out of its axis on its own.

Not that I have any little kids running around I need to keep away from the guns. I had any kids I'd get rid of the guns. Nothing more dangerous to the life of a child than a house full of firearms. Nothing more dangerous except maybe a parent.

You can't change the world if your motive is revenge. Vibes like that just aren't productive.

Tell them to drop their guns and fuck off out of my way. --Allow him to-- I clamp my arm tight. --That's not what I said. She gets it right this time. --Drop your guns and fuck off out of his way. They drop their guns and fuck off out of my way.

You are going to die in front of dozens of witnesses, and none of them will do a thing to help you or avenge you. Because they know exactly what you know: The world is ending.

Most undercover cops are vastly skilled at compartmentalization. It is a talent as valued as lying. They seal off their real feelings and create imitation emotions. Easily torn down when it's time to show the badge, drag someone downtown, and sit across from him in an interrogation cell and tell him how fucked he is now.

Morality he found amusing, in the obscure way that only a man with a Ph.D. in philosophy could find such things amusing, but justice and ethics were inflexible measures, applicable to all, and not to be joked about.

Money makes people stupid. They don't have to work as hard as people who don't have money. That's why the smart people who do have money mostly use it for one thing… They use it to make sure the people without it don't get any more.

She makes a stone-face, drops her voice an octave. -No. No. No. My name is Joe Pitt and I don't do nuthin' I don't want to do and I won't even listen because I don't know a good thing when I have it and I'd rather be all fucked up and tragic and go hurt people.

Think about a night like that often enough, you'll ask yourself a lot of questions. Most of them about yourself. The kind of person you are. What you'll do and why and when you'll do it. What you believe in. What you really believe in.

The man breeds lies. He spawns them asexually, with no need for any assistance. He exhales and lies fill the air. Alone in a room, he mutters lies to himself to keep from falling into the trap of truth-telling. In the day, sleeping in his bed, deep in the safest heart of Coalition headquarters, he dreams in lies. The better to keep his left hand from knowing what betrayals his right has planned.

The enforcer takes an envelope from his side jacket pocket and drops it in one of the scummy puddles. I look at Predo. "You rehearse that move in advance? He shrugs. "Actually, not. This one has initiative.

It's a puzzler, and I don't want to sound full of myself, but I may just be the Vyrus messiah." He shakes his head. "I don't know for sure. Have to meditate on that shit some more. Anyhoo.

She reaches up and ties the strip of black cloth so that it covers my dead eye. "Now, go Arrghh. "Arrghh. She nods. "There. You're a pirate.