Quotes from Peter Robinson

Do you think Gill's death was calmly planned and executed, or was it a crime of passion?' Banks asked. 'A bit of both. Things aren't so clear-cut in this kind of crime. Terrorists are very emotional about their beliefs, but they're cold and deadly when it comes to action.

If you like Harlan Coben, you'll love Linwood Barclay.

I think writers have to be able to enjoy solitude rather than just endure it. I've always enjoyed being left alone with my imagination, ever since I was a kid.

If we all knew the consequences of every decision we made, we'd probably never make any.

You can keep on assigning blame here, there and everywhere, but when it comes right down to it, we're responsible for what we do ourselves.

When he saw her, my brother stopped in his tracks and fell into her eyes so deeply you could hear the splash.

They locked her in the cage when she started to bleed.

She changed. But then you do, don't you? Otherwise what's the point of getting married? If it doesn't change you, I mean.

It's hard knowing what to allow and what not to. It's hard to know how much discipline to apply. If you don't give enough, then the child runs wild, and the parents get the blame. If you keep too strict control, he doesn't develop naturally and he blames you for screwing him up.

one half of his face drooping lower than the other, as if it had melted like a Dalí watch.

Like many things he had believed, it had all been an illusion, only true because he had been gullible enough to believe in it. In reality, it had all been as flimsy and fleeting as an optical illusion; it depended entirely on your point of view. In calendar time, perhaps, those days weren't so long ago, but in his memory they sometimes seemed as if they had been dreamed by another person in another century.

used to write her books.

What was it Beckett wrote? 'I can't go on. I'll go on.' Story of my life.

scuffle, police in riot

Those old songs certainly brought back memories. Why did the past always seem so much brighter than the present? Because he had been more innocent then?

When it comes right down to it, we fear the unknown more than anything else.

They were the sort of walls that hoarded winter and emanated its chill throughout summer.

but the easiest way isn't necessarily the true one.

Why, he wondered, does a phone call to a distant loved one only intensify the emptiness and loneliness you were feeling before you called?

Traditional police wisdom has it that if a case doesn't yield leads in the first twenty-four hours, then everyone is in for a long, tough haul.

gong to stay at a friend's." "Who? A girlfriend?

Losing a friend is a terrible thing, the memories it shakes loose, even if you've drifted apart. The panicky feeling that you're losing bits of yourself.

For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad. But

trouble. Events