Quotes from Lee Child

The guy I saw was an ex-Marine.

They were doped up? Then you were lucky." Reacher shook his head. "You want to fight with me, your best choice would be aspirin.

Elizabeth Castle looked up from her screen and focused on nothing much, as if running through a number of possible scenarios, and the consequent next steps in all the different circumstances, starting, Reacher assumed, with him being an idiot and getting the town wrong, in which case the next step would be to get rid of him, no doubt politely, but also no doubt expeditiously.

And then he paused, for the drama, as if inviting questions, but no one asked any. Not even: the beginning of what? Better to hear the pitch all the way through. Always safer, with orders from on high. Ratcliffe

They had already decided among themselves to keep it lean. It was felt someone else's cryptic half-remembered childhood legends would not survive a formal one-against-seven across-the-table grilling. It was felt a casual atmosphere would be more productive. A smaller gathering. Sinclair and Reacher and Neagley had already been chosen ahead of time. So

Thin dirty hair. Sweating, despite the chilly air. The blotchy red and gray complexion of an unfit, overweight mess. Blood pressure sky-high. Arteries hard as rocks.

Which because of the geometric complexities of high altitude flight meant we were likely aiming some ways south. A Great Circle route. Weird on a flat paper map, but just right for a spherical planet. We

He went in, to a reception desk that could have been in a hip museum or at an upscale dentist's. Behind it was a guy who looked like he was stationed there as a punishment. Reacher said hello. The guy looked up but didn't answer. Reacher told him he wanted to see two sets of old census records.

Reacher thought, damn. The vagaries of chance.

They were in flat empty country and she eased the silent car faster down a dead-straight road. The hot sky was tinted bottle-green by the windshield.

The traffic rolled on, but strangely, always moving but very slowly, as if every driver was a movie guy shooting a scene in slow motion.

The way to take out a gang is to hit the leader first.

right. In the form of an invented approach on

She just went into her bag for her keys and got out of the car and skipped straight across the sidewalk and into the coffee shop.

He glanced ahead at the sky. It was tinted bottle-green by the windshield glass, and it was blindingly clear.

Sherlock Homeless.

All in the Cyrillic alphabet. Named for Saint Cyril, who worked on alphabets in the ninth century.

Major Sullivan is working on that. She wants everything dismissed. The fruits of a poisoned tree.

He had foam on his lip, from a long hard pull on a long-neck bottle.

Every island he had ever been on had a garbage problem.

Delegation. Rule one in the modern environment. Especially against a guy so big.

sent Summer away to do three things: first, list all female personnel at Fort Bird with access to their own Humvees, and second, list any of them who might have met Kramer at Fort Irwin in California, and third, contact the Jefferson Hotel in D.C. and get Vassell and Coomer's exact check-in and checkout times, plus details on all their incoming and outgoing phone calls.

Make it all a little unpredictable. How about

try to do the right thing. Even though everybody hates us and nobody helps us and nobody thanks us afterward. I think doing the right thing is an end in itself. It has to be, really, doesn't it?