Quotes from Lee Child

Then we could collate all the possibles and go to work with the holy trinity of detectives everywhere: means, motive, opportunity. Means and opportunity wouldn't signify much. By definition nobody would be on the possibles list unless they had been proved to have opportunity. And everybody in the army was physically capable of swinging a tire iron or a crowbar against the back of an unsuspecting victim's head. It was probably a rough equivalent of the most basic entry requirement.

He was listed as right-handed. The army needed to know that because bolt-action sniper rifles are made for right-handers. Left-handed soldiers don't usually get assigned as snipers. Pigeonholing starts on day one in the military.

I know," I said. "You already don't respect me because you saw me naked.

So like I said, what are you running from?" "From being like people, I guess.

The range had been exceptional. An apartment balcony fourteen hundred yards away had been identified as the rifleman's hide. Fourteen hundred yards is more than three-quarters of a mile. The French president had been at an open-air podium behind

He had no place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, so detours cost him nothing.

It helped a lonely man feel connected and isolated both at the same time.

veterans and remarkable rookies. International Thriller Writers, Inc. (ITW) cofounder, David

He looked at them and wondered if they were the fools, or if he was.

People who say no right away are usually lying. A truthful person is perfectly capable of saying no but generally they stop and think about it first. And they add sorry or something like that. Maybe they come out with some questions of their own. It's human nature. They say, Sorry, no, why, what happened?

Her breasts rested on the edge of the table.

The Zip Code is about the size of Chicago. With five people. But hey, welcome to Wyoming.

Socratic, they call it in college. All kinds of back and forth, designed to elicit truths implicitly known by all rational beings.

There was nothing she had neglected to tell him, nothing he had neglected to tell her. People live, and then they die, and as long as they do both things properly, there's nothing much to regret.

He liked fiction better than fact, because fact often wasn't. Like most people he knew a couple of things for sure, up close and eyeballed, and when he saw them in books they were wrong. So he liked made-up stories better, because everyone knew where they were from the get-go. He wasn't strict about genre. Either shit happened, or it didn't.

any structure that has a ranking system tempts you to try to climb it.

No particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there.

Especially about how hard it was for ex-military people. They entered the civilian world with all the wrong assumptions. They expected the same kind of certainties they had known before. The straightforwardness, the transparency, the honesty, the shared sacrifice.

Printing currency for foreigners to buy is the best racket a government can get into.

He spoke in a neutral tone and said, "Help you?" Which in my experience are two words that can precede anything from genuine wholehearted cooperation to a bullet in the face. I said, "We're looking for John Kott.

A soldier knows that a satisfactory observation point provides an unobstructed view to the front and adequate security to the flanks and the rear. He knows it provides protection from the elements and concealment of the observers. He knows it offers a reasonable likelihood of undisturbed occupation for the full duration of the operation.

At one point they said they were heading to

And most people stick to underwear from their country of origin." "Do they?" "As a general rule. It's a comfort issue, literally and metaphorically. And an intimacy issue. It's a big step, putting on foreign underwear. Like betrayal, or emigration.

Echo was a young girl in love with Narcissus. But he loved himself, not her, so she pined away until just her voice was left.