Quotes from Lee Child

It's about surprise, really. If you can surprise them you don't have to hit them very hard.

He was the Praetorian Guard, and they were the great gentlemen.

Reacher said, "They sleep safely in their beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do them harm." "You know George Orwell?" Yanni asked. "I went to college," Reacher said. "West Point is technically a college.

My only problem was making a living. How to make a living without giving up the freedom was not an easy trick.

His toxicology was absolutely clear. The

THE RETURN ADDRESS on Rutter's letter corresponded to a dingy storefront some blocks south of any hope of urban renewal.

Peter had said they should think on it, and they had, not because he told them, but because it was their natures. It was the Saint Leonard way. Engage brain. Think before you speak. Begin at the beginning.

Better than Tennyson,' Reacher said. 'You have to give me that.

Never count on anything except surprise and unpredictability and danger. Ring doorbells with your knuckles or elbows to avoid leaving fingerprints.

The car kept on coming. The train kept on coming. Vectoring in. Collision course.

He was tall and thin. Maybe six feet two. Maybe a hundred sixty pounds. But only if he had a dollar's worth of pennies in his pocket. All skin and bone, and awkward as a stepladder.

I don't see how his welfare suddenly becomes my responsibility, just because he chose to attack my welfare first.

Perhaps he would glance down and see that he was doing 76 miles an hour, and he would see that 76 squared was 5,776, which ended in 76, where it started, which made 76 an automorphic number, one of only two below 100, the other being 25, whose square was 625, whose square was 390,625, which

President Harry S Truman's hometown. Reacher's favorite president.

Like a Zen question: If you put on a show, and nobody comes, have you in fact put on a show at all?

If you hear hoof beats, you look for horses, not zebras.

sure Edmonds was busting a gut in Virginia, on East Coast time, gathering information, so she could call early and wake him up. Chapter 57 Edmonds' first call came in at two in the morning local time, which was five o'clock Eastern. Reacher and Turner both woke up. Reacher put the open phone between their pillows, and they rolled over forehead to forehead, so they could both hear. Edmonds said, "You

There were button makers, and hat makers, and glove makers, and turpentine farmers, and laborers, and locomotive engineers, and silk spinners, and tin mill workers.

He said, "Come back," a little louder. She straightened up. He got the impression she was about to puke. He didn't want that. Not all over his good clothes. But he licked her ear one more time

There are four types of people who join the military. For some, it's a family trade. Others are patriots, eager to serve. Next, you have those who just need a job. Than there's the kind who want a legal means of killing other people.

Reacher kept quiet. He could see where this game was going. If he said yes, he'd be expected to hurt the guy badly. Which he had no objection to in principle, but he'd prefer to do it on his own terms. If he said no, Borken would call him a coward with no sense of natural justice and no self-respect. An obvious game, with no way to win. So he kept quiet, which was a tactic he'd used a thousand times before: when in doubt, just keep your mouth shut.

room number?

made it a perfect

Sooner or later you ended up an orphan. There was no escaping it. It had happened that