Quotes from Lee Child

He showered, and retrieved his pants from under the mattress, and dressed, and walked out in search of breakfast. He found coffee and muffins close by, which sustained him through a longer reconnaissance, which brought him to a place he figured might have good food hiding under multiple layers of some kind of faux-retro irony.

Shrago stayed on his feet for a long second, and then his knees got the message that the lights were out upstairs, and he went down in a vertical heap, like he had jumped off a wall.

delivered hard but with a degree of mercy, in that smashed

I said, "I don't need no education.

Tell me about the aunt." "She married up. A doctor. She has a beautiful daughter. But she still loves her nephew. And seems to understand him.

She said the classroom was uncomfortable, because of the desks, which was true, especially for Reacher. He was six feet five and two hundred fifty pounds. He

He smiled and gave me the What can you do? shrug again and picked up his phone.

She glanced at him. He smiled. "The Army paid them all off

But her arms were thrown up above her head, which some army psychiatrist had once told him was a sign of security. A kid sleeps like that, he had said, deep down it feels safe.

Nakamura asked, "Do you have a partner?" "Romantically?" Bramall said. "Or professionally?" "Professionally." "No.

Frenchman Honoré de Balzac wrong when he wrote, 'Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst." "That wouldn't get us a warrant." "Warrants are about what you can prove. Not what you know." "And you know?" "It's an instinct thing. It's why I'm still here, after seven million years. Darwinism in action.

Was it you with Merchenko?" "Admit nothing, even on your deathbed. You might suddenly get better.

Supposed to be a big guy, three months in the Keys. Costello told us people were talking about a big guy, been there three months, worked nights in a bar. We went to see him. Big tough guy, but he said he wasn't Jack Reacher." "So?

racket, terrorized by a threat against himself and his

My people don't need any encouraging. They don't need much leading. They need guidance, and they need discipline, but don't let that fool you. I'm not coercing anybody. Don't make the mistake of underestimating their will. Don't ignore their desire for a change for the better.

But the smart money says we should act like I'm right. Just in case." "Like Pascal's Wager.

couple of times in the first month. We saw

was dead. He had taken the Winchester's

Still no reaction. No movement. Just total stillness, and a raised chin, and an averted gaze, and a dignified and implacable silence, like a veteran salesman insulted by a counteroffer.

Then you probably won't know this Reacher guy," he said."According to Mrs. Jacob, he was an Army officer. So I checked, and she was right. He

Every state puts a lot of effort into the first mile of its highways, to make you feel you're entering a better place from a worse one. Reacher wondered why they didn't put the effort into the last mile instead. That way, you'd miss the place you were leaving.

It was the middle of the day, and the heat was so brutal it was enforcing a de facto siesta on the whole town.

From the Latin motto si vis pacem para bellum. If you wish for peace, prepare for war.