Quotes from Barry Eisler

perambulations

dispositive.

He made his way to my table and squeezed in next to me as though it was the most natural thing in the world that he should be meeting me here. As usual, he was wearing a dark suit that fit him like an afterthought. He nodded a greeting. I returned the gesture, then went back to watching Grace play.

No aru taka wa, tsume o kakusu, as the Japanese saying goes. The hawk with talent hides its talons.

But when she got going, on numbers like "Pulse Fiction" and "Delancey Street Blues," she had that same air of having been possessed by the instrument, as though the piano was a demon and she its exhilarated amanuensis.

It was always a sad pleasure, like making love to a beautiful woman, but not to the woman you love.

That was the dirty little secret of 9/11

you can't legitimately criticize someone's tactics if you don't understand his objectives

George Burns line? 'Sincerity—if you can fake that, you've got it made.

The hawk with talent hides its talons.

In my unpleasant experience, unarmed against a knife, you've basically got four options. Your best bet is to run like hell, if you can. Next best is to do something immediately that prevents the attack from getting started. Third is to create distance so you can deploy a longer-range weapon. Fourth is to go berserk and hope not to get fatally cut going through and over your attacker.

Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru

So much of being a good interrogator was just knowing how to actively listen to someone

When I was ready, I eased in beside him. Immediately I felt my muscles trying to shrink back from the heat, and knew that in a moment they would give up their fruitless struggle and surrender to delirious relaxation.

Shit," he grunted. A minute or so passed. Then he sat up and looked at me. He flexed his leg and flashed his indefatigable grin.

I left. I told myself again I wasn't disappointed, I wasn't even terribly surprised. I learned a long time ago not to trust, that faith is to life what sticking your chin out is to boxing. I told myself it was good to get some further confirmation of the essential accuracy of my worldview.

God. That bastard, he doesn't exist. —Samuel Beckett

It was fascinating, how people could be so reluctant to recognize blackmail, how eager they could be to convince themselves it was something else, even something fundamentally mutually cooperative. And sometimes it seemed the more powerful the individual, the greater the capacity for self-deception. He

I heard a bolt moving, then the door opened. It was Washio. "You're early," he said. I shrugged. I rarely make appointments. You don't want to give someone the opportunity to fix you in time and place. On those infrequent occasions where I have no choice, I like to show up early to scout around. If someone's going to throw me a party, I'll get there before the musicians set up.

it came to feel more a fortress than a home. A fortress of solitude.

I told myself it was all right, I wasn't disappointed, it was better this way. I wondered in a detached way whether it was all part of some cosmic punishment for Crazy Jake, the blood brother I had killed in Vietnam. Or perhaps for the other things I've done. To be periodically tantalized by the hope of something real, something good, always knowing at the same time it was all going to turn to dust.

smell the sherry

I had convinced myself I had become safe enough in Rio to see her. I realized now I'd been wrong. The disease I carried was still communicable.

mutatis mutandis