Quotes from Douglas Preston

The perpetration of the primary felony burglary is organized and methodical, strongly suggesting criminal sophistication and experience. It is the unexpected introduction of one of the house residents to the crime in progress that quickly shifts the crime scene to a disorganized presentation.

at least the higher animals have souls, and they are inevitably saved. Only man, who has the capacity for good and evil, can be damned.

It is scientifically impossible for one offender to leave extensive DNA evidence and for others involved in the same assault to leave none.

What is it the Arab sages call death?" Pendergast went on. "The destroyer of all earthly pleasures. And how true it is: old age, sickness, and at last death comes to us all. Some console themselves with religion, others through denial, others through philosophy or mere stoicism.

I'm afraid so," said Pendergast. "The body, it appears, has been buttered and sugared.

From all physical and behavioral evidence, the most likely scenario would have the lone offender quickly rising from the toilet, pulling up his trousers, and going immediately to the woman and confronting her with his knife. With reference to the element of surprise and victimology displayed at countless scenes of violence, we would expect the victim to plead with the UNSUB to take what he wants and leave her unhurt. This would be true whether the victim knows the UNSUB or not.

It's hard to learn manners on the Internet.

Jennie had a set of values, but she didn't realize they were different values from the rest of us. She never could understand why she was always in trouble. In the end, I mean. She didn't know what it was that made her angry all the time. I'll tell you what it was. It was very simple: it was our society trying to break her, trying to make her a nice middle-class person.

But I also know this anomaly is something you won't let drop until you get to the bottom of it.

specimens, wait until they've been examined, then put them back." "Bone librarian—a most apt description. How many visiting scientists

She turned her violet eyes on him and quoted. "'Not only is the universe stranger than we suppose, it is stranger than we can suppose.'" "And whose deathless pearl of wisdom was that?" "Heisenberg, some say." "You mean the guy in Breaking Bad?" Constance issued a low, mirthless laugh.

It's not like Father to be late

Dr. Nash decided to begin Dave's treatment immediately. He would use a drug called amphotericin B, administered by slow infusion. Doctors have nicknamed the drug "amphoterrible" because of its nasty side effects. It is considered a last resort, most commonly given to patients with fungal infections of the blood when other drugs have failed;

In keeping with the methodical scientist he was, he had been jotting daily notes on his work. But underneath the entry for May 5, he had written two words only: HOLY SHIT!

Kibbencook was not a hotbed of radicalism, and even antiwar marches were organized with a certain decorum. It was a thoroughly suburban protest.

She created a new world for herself. It blew my mind to see this animal acquire language. And then literally reshape her world with it.

New York Public Library.

Jennie taught me just how worthless that is. Being smart. Jennie wasn't smart by human standards, but she had a set of values. Real values. You see, for Jennie, freedom was the highest value. Language gave Jennie freedom. Although I didn't know it at the time, she taught me the real meaning of the word "freedom," not the bullshit meaning you get from politicians and priests.

Have you ever read The Hollow Man, by John Dickson Carr?

In Florence the sublime and terrible go hand in hand: Savonarola's Bonfires of the Vanities and Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks and Niccolò Macchiavelli's The Prince, Dante's Inferno and Boccaccio's Decameron.

Resistance would be futile, and futility itself was, of course, to be resisted.

She was like the boy who held his breath until he turned blue. Chimps are just as silly and absurd as human beings. Thank goodness we're not the only ridiculous species in the world!

Be in the world but not of it.

On November 20, 2007, he was arrested for riding without a ticket on an intercity train near Mainz, Germany. Once German authorities identified him, he was extradited back to Italy.