Quotes from David Baldacci

You really have changed, Eddie. What gives?" "The way I had been caused me to lose what was most important to me. Now, I could have been an idiot and doubled down on that. But I decided to use my brain and change how I was conducting myself. Because if you keep doing the same thing over and over, how can you expect a different result?

He looked up at Wyatt, who was

Normal people don't grow up to do the sorts of jobs we do, Jessica

It was like Julie had said. You had to take life as it came. It gave no quarter, spared no feelings. Limited no pain. Put no ceiling on happiness.

The world is upside down. Good is bad and bad is deified.

We've apparently come a long way since the 1966 Mustang," added Michelle. "I drove my brother's hand-me-down in college. It had something called an eight-track player.

Rogers raised a fist to deliver a blow to the head that would have almost certainly killed the man. The spot on his head was burning like somebody had set it on fire with an acetylene torch.

Life is not fair any way you cut it, Michelle. You know that and I know that. We've lived that stuff too often to recognize it any other way.

The Bureau was still behind the times on technology

We deal with them all

The truck pulled through, and the gate was locked behind it. "Well, that's all we can do here," Caleb said in a relieved tone. "My God, do I need a decaf cappuccino after this nightmare of an evening." Stone said, "We need to get inside the fence." "Right," Reuben agreed. "Are you both insane!" Caleb cried out.

He cracked a grin. "I'm only five miles from the stoplight.

the parlance of the perception management field, the world had firmly entered the "gripper" stage, where the majority of people embraced as true everything they were told. It was far easier to accomplish this than most would care or dare to believe. It was easy to manipulate people. Folks had been doing it pretty much forever with results that had taken the world right to the edge of destruction.

That was the thing about life. You actually had to spend time living it. Or else what the hell did any of it really matter?

The car had been returned to the impoundment lot where Luther had "borrowed" it earlier that night. The plate would get them nowhere

was already gone for good. "Hello, who is this?" Watson wasn't slurring his words.

your butt somehow." Jordan shrugged. "I just took

Fame and influence are both often fickle and localized.

DC is expensive. Quite a few lawmakers choose to essentially live in their offices, though they tried to ban that, but when do politicians listen to rules?

you mean?" "My way of looking at the world is that some folks do what they want, and they don't care what happens to others, so long as it's good for them.

He was popular with his constituency and his district had been redrawn to make him election-proof.

I like to verify things independently. It's not like any of us are infallible.

I remember thinking about her that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

walkie-talkie in the floorboard, with its Talk button taped