Quotes from Lee Child

Joe was probably the only other human on the planet who liked coffee as much as I did. He started drinking it when he was six. I copied him immediately. I was four. Neither of us has stopped since. The Reacher brothers' need for caffeine makes heroin addiction look like an amusing little take-it-or-leave-it sideline.

A brave woman is one who stands up when she hears gunshots. She doesn't dive under the desk.

He had no bag, which was strange. But overall it was vaguely reassuring to have such a man on board, especially after he had proved himself civilized and not in any way threatening. Threatening behavior from a man that size would have been unseemly. Good manners from a man that size were charming.

Forty thousand suicides every year in America. One every thirteen minutes. Statistically we're more likely to kill ourselves than each other.

What's the best place to hide a car? In an airport long-term lot. Like where's the best place to hide a grain of sand? On the beach

Most right-handed people end up walking wide counterclockwise circles, because most right-handed people have left legs fractionally shorter than their right legs. Basic biology and geometry. I avoided that particular peril by stepping to the right of every tenth tree I came to, whether I thought I needed to or not.

Webster lapsed into silence. Started thinking hard. He was a smart enough bureaucrat to know if you can't beat them, you join them. You force yourself to think like they think.

Shotguns and children don't mix.

We're all atheists. You don't believe in Zeus or Thor or Neptune or Augustus Caesar or Mars or Venus or Sun Ra. You reject a thousand gods. Why should it bother you if someone else rejects a thousand and one?

Facts were to be faced, not fought.

Either way Reacher figured he might as well find out. He had no place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, so detours cost him nothing.

His eyes were closed, which made it not much of a fair fight, but those are always my favorite kind.

Be friendly with the cookhouse detail.

Don't aim for the middle of the body, which is easier to defend; aim high for the head or low for the knees.

You could try, Reacher said. But you'd get hurt. You're out of your league. You're up against something you never saw before. You have a mighty high opinion of yourself. Reacher nodded at Neagley. I'm talking about her. I'm just here to clear up the mess.

Just bought a vintage Pontiac GTO," he said. "Fine car. I put polished headers on it, big bore pipes. Goes like shit off a shiny shovel." I said nothing. "You like muscle cars?" "No," I said. "I like to take the bus." "That's not much fun." "OK, let me put it another way. I'm happy with the size of my penis. I don't need compensation." He

People don't look for complications. You hear hoofbeats, you look for horses, not zebras.

A person either runs or he fights. It's a binary choice, and I'm a fighter.

I have a knife. And I have a rule. Pull a knife on me, I break your arm.

He believed that anything could be reverse-engineered. If one human or group of humans put something together, then another human or group of humans could take it apart again. It was a basic principle. All that was required was empathy and thought and imagination. And he liked pressure. He liked deadlines. He liked a short and finite time to crack a problem. He liked a quiet space to work in. And he liked a similar mind to work with.

We're your legal advisors.' Which they weren't, obviously. Reacher knew that. Army lawyers don't travel in pairs and breathe through their mouths.

This is why we need more women officers. For us it's enough to win. For you, the other guy has to know he lost.

The Pentagon was built because World War Two was coming, and because World War Two was coming it was built without much steel. Steel was needed elsewhere, as always in wartime. Thus the giant building was a monument to the strength and mass of concrete. So much sand was needed for the mix it was dredged right out of the Potomac River, not far from the rising walls themselves. Nearly a million tons of it. The result was extreme solidity.

Hopeless is hopeless, and don't ever pretend it ain't