Quotes from Lee Child

organize. I ran to the far end of the corridor.

mano a mano

fifty feet above the rocks. The wind

Audibility decays according to the inverse square law. Twice the distance, the sound gets four times as quiet. Four times the distance, sixteen times as quiet.

Without breaking stride Reacher head-butted him full in the face. Left, right, bang. A perfect ten, for style and content, and power and precision.

It's like walking out of a movie. Being made to walk out of a movie that you're really enjoying. That's what worried me about it. I would never know how it turned out.

Then pale gold fingers probed the gray, moving, ethereal, as if deciding. And then spreading, igniting some thin and distant layer one molecule at a time, one lumen, lighting it up slowly, turning it luminous and transparent, the glass of the bowl, not white and cold, but tinted warmer.

Realistic. Dispassionate. Overall he figured there was a good chance of success. Either Karel would let it go, or he wouldn't, multiplied by either he was close by, or he wasn't. Two coin tosses in a row. Disaster priced at four to one, success at four to three. Numbers didn't lie. No cognitive bias.

Eventually he was led to a small hot room. The air was full of flies, moving slowly. Two men sat on pillows, both bearded, one short and fat, the other tall and lean. Both were in plain white robes and plain white turbans. The

You eat here a lot?" "Practically every meal, but the word would be often. Not a lot. Lot refers to quantity, and I prefer small portions.

People live, and then they die, and as long as they do both things properly, there's nothing much to regret. T

Where would the American feel dominant? This is a negotiation, we assume. He'd want a psychological advantage. He would want to be comfortable, and he would want the other guy to be uncomfortable.

called the guy at the LA Times.

No, we'll remember parts of her. The parts she chose to share. The tip of the iceberg. The rest, only she knew about. Therefore the rest already doesn't exist. As of now.

think they all hooked up in the bar, over aperitifs. Certainly

Reacher asked him, "What do you know about the laundromat down the block?" The guy turned back. The blade hissed and sung behind him. He looked puzzled at first, and then a little hostile, as if he suspected someone was making fun of him. Then he looked preoccupied, as if he was struggling with a difficult arithmetic calculation, and coming out with an answer he liked but didn't trust.

Maybe Burke was offering tactical advice. Do this, then do that. But Reacher couldn't understand the semaphore. And he felt it would likely be superfluous anyway.

nine-millimeter automatic.

There was a knock at the door. Neagley herself, Reacher figured, right on cue, checking if Sinclair had killed him yet. Or Bishop, checking if he had killed Sinclair. He opened up, standing to one side, out of the line of fire. Long

Nothing happened. Nothing at all. Not even a click or a whir or a cough. Turning the key was the same thing as not turning it. Inert. Dead as a doornail. Dead as the deadest thing that ever died.

The woman bent decorously at the knees and laid her briefcase and her stack of papers on the floor. Ratcliffe took a step forward and said, "You three were brought here under false pretenses, obviously. But we didn't want a lot of fanfare. A little misdirection was better. We want to avoid attention, if we can. At least at the beginning." And

You'd have the IRS so far up your ass you'd see them when you brush your teeth.

which leads to the Bronx. You can get to Yankee Stadium that way, although other routes are better.

They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind.