Quotes from David Liss

Ms. Price smiled, but it was more indulgent than warm, the kind of smile used only by people who have to work hard at appearing nonthreatening.

Despite breaking into my room, Steve seemed like a pretty decent lizard guy.

Elias nodded. "You begin to understand the theory of probability," he said. "From the general necessity of the existence of victims, you will find the particular of the villain.

Sometimes you make your mistakes with your eyes wide open.

I enjoy my pettiness with a dose of wit.

What had passed between them had been real and true and lived. Not like the silly infatuation she had felt for [him] when she was 16, or the foolish attraction she'd felt. Theirs had been a true love. Forged and built and earned.

You are but a hard turd in the ass of my journey.

I did not tremble to lose what men called beauty, but I feared the loss of my spirit and humor and love of living, the things I believed made my soul human and vibrant.

I knew there was no point in debating a man such as this. The world bent and contorted itself to fit his understanding, not the other way around. I could not make him see reason, could not make him regret his actions. It would be a mistake to try.

There will always be a storm. You may be rained on or cause the rain yourself. I much prefer the latter.

Not anticipating I'd be on trial for my life, my mother hadn't bothered to pack a suit for me. She was, by nature, an optimist.

I mean no disrespect to the gentlemen of the bench, but it is no secret that our system of justice, praised throughout Europe for its severity and its swiftness, is a terrible and fearful thing, and no man, guilty or innocent, wishes to stand before it.

We are all driven by our passions, and our task is to know when to submit to them and when to resist.

Needless to say, it was inconceivable that I would be welome in, let alone invited to, their home. It was as well, then, that I did not limit myself only to those places where people might wish me to be.

If we do nothing...and turn our backs now, in future generations, when rank corruption masquerades as libery, it will be upon our shoulders. True patriots will then ask why we who were there to witness our nation at the crossroads did nothing.

Lucy absently thanked him and at once began to consider which among her gowns would be best suited for a midnight adventure to a gothic castle.

Proximity, I have learned, is often as effective as violence.

You have my word as a gentleman." [The other man remarks that he is not a gentleman and he retorts] "Then you have my word as a scoundrel, which, I know, opens up a rather confusing paradox that I have neither the time nor inclination to disentangle.

The less said about the things Steve ate for breakfast the better, though I will mention that the food did not want to be eaten, and Steve had to remove the singers before he could pop the things in his mouth.

What are we playing for? This needs to be worth my while." "Honour?" Steve suggested. "Let me know if your universal translator got that one. I know it may be a tough concept for your species.

I splashed some water on my face again because I thought that's what you do in a crisis. You wash your face. Did it really help, or was it a myth circulated by the soap industry?

And it relieves me to learn that you are not trying to make friends," the captain said, locking her hammerhead eyes on Ms. Price, "because no one likes you.

Gabriela was in prison for Judaizing, but she recited the prayers of her tormentors. She had not even the comfort of the religion for which she was punished.

You will act not on what your eyes and ears show you, but on what your mind thinks probable.