Quotes from Lee Child

In their armory," Summer said. "Cleaned, oiled, and loaded. They check their personal weapons in and out. They've got a cage inside their hangar. You should see that place. It's like Santa's grotto. Special armored Humvees wall to wall, trucks, explosives, grenade launchers, claymores, night vision stuff. They could equip a Central African dictatorship all by themselves.

He was moving in the chair. Imperceptibly. Tiny violent movements, from side to side. Like he was fighting two alternating opponents, one on his left, one on his right. Like he knew he had to tell me where he had been, but like he knew he couldn't. He was jumping around like the absolute flesh-and-blood definition of a rock and a hard place.

She set out toward the stairs, and the Cadillac driver anticipated her coming predicament, and he threw out a Wait gesture, and went up to meet her. He collapsed her bag's handle and carried it down, ahead of her, as if showing her the way. He put the bag in the trunk, and she got in the rear seat, and he got back behind the wheel, and the car pulled out and drove away.

Reacher's personal rule of thumb was never to revive a guy who had just pulled a gun on him. He was fairly inflexible on the matter.

But, you know, nobody lives forever. Conceptually these things don't come as a surprise.

a wanderer depends on the kindness of strangers. Not for anything specific or material. For morale.

Human motivation is very complex. Most people don't really know why they do things.

The gunsmoke whipped away in the wind and the sudden noise faded and the jet whine came back, low and steady.

Why me? Why didn't you do it?" "Like they say in England, why buy a dog and bark yourself?

I felt a little envious for a second. If I got offed in the woods late one night, I doubted if three tough guys would go straight to someone's office, eight in the morning, champing at the bit, ready for revenge. Then I looked at the three of them again and thought, This particular perp could be in a shitload of trouble. All I'd have to do is drop a name.

Reacher knocked on the door, and the voices fell silent. He opened the door, and saw a break room, very municipal, full of inoffensive colors and low chairs with fabric upholstery. In the chairs were five people, two men, three women, different ages, different types.

If I 'ad known zen what I know now.

Cozo's guys could let your name slip." "So?" "They could tell him where you live." "And that's supposed to scare me? Look at me, Blake. Get real. There's maybe ten people on the planet I need to be scared of. Extremely unlikely this guy Petrosian happens to be one of them.

the Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Georgia, nearly six hundred feet above the Savannah River

A kidnapping in Boston. A cop dies. Has Reacher lost

That's the easiest way to spot a hooker. Look for someone dressed like she's going to a ball, carrying a bag like she's going on vacation.

It would have been hard to be noisier, in fact, short of firing the Winchester a couple of times and singing the National Anthem.

Reacher said nothing in reply to that. Feral, from the Latin adjective ferus, wild, via bestia fera, wild animal. Generally held to mean having escaped from domestication, and having devolved back to a natural state.

At that moment I knew I would miss her forever. I felt empty. I had lost something I never knew I had.

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in his shoes. Then when you start criticizing him, you're a mile away and he's got to run after you in his socks.

this before. I don't see how his welfare suddenly becomes my responsibility, just because he chose to attack my welfare first. I'm not clear how that works exactly. They started it. They can't expect me to provide a health plan.

Where's your luggage?" "I don't use any." "You have no stuff?" "I saw a little book in a store at the airport. Apparently we're supposed to get rid of whatever doesn't bring us joy.

your mom's name?

Here's to bloody wars and dread diseases