Quotes from Greg Iles

Caitlin's ambition is like a third person in the car.

lot. She saw a guy carrying a small suitcase out

some of what she said actually offended me. Caitlin truly was a liberal when she arrived in Natchez, and she routinely chastised me for being too conservative. But now it seems that her liberal "convictions" weren't convictions at all, but rather easy opinions based on the lectures of Ivy League professors. After a few years in the South, she's ready to give up on racial harmony and flee to more "enlightened"—read homogenous—environs.

As I ponder Sonny's life and death, it strikes me that, whatever his prejudices, he was one of the quiet heroes of this country.

Our people think the land of liberty's their God-given

Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Annie

I've seen a lot of men on the south side of twenty die for no reason at all. Shot or mortared out of a clear blue sky, some times by their own side. I've heard them screaming in the back of my chopper with no hope of getting to a field hospital in time. And they don't scream to God, Doc. They don't scream to Daddy, either. They scream to Mama. Because they know Mama loved them more than anyone else ever could. More than even God, if there is one.

have resolved a simple thing: I will do those things which make me happy today, and which I can also live with ten years from now.

Just because you will not see the work completed, does not mean you are free not to take it up.

Lenz snorts. "My mistake.

when the Asian face was illuminated

No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that's in the right and keeps on a comin'. —Captain Bill McDonald, Texas Ranger

searching, revealing nothing. A few heads in the audience turn to me, wondering who could possibly have upset the equilibrium of the

When everything is at risk, good judgment, not haste, makes the difference between life and death. Panic is the enemy….

Danny was surprised that Ellis had let Carl stay so long. But when he thought about it some more, he understood. Carl Sims was Death. In the command trailer, death was contained. But once they put Carl behind that tree in the backyard-with clearance to shoot-Warren Shields was a dead man. This certainty roiled Danny's gut in a way few things ever had

I'm not sure Shad's worried about that. You said it yourself, his concern is the special election. That means making good on his promise to make the system equal, i.e., to nail a rich white man. That's what will get Shad a unified black vote. I expect Judge Minor to move as fast as legally possible.

A tourist will just walk up to a Natchezian on the street and ask, 'Where does Greg Iles live?' And they'll say, 'Oh, right over there; just go knock on the door.' I've had people just walk into my office, walk into my house like it's a museum just open to the public.

All my books are an inquiry into the nature of evil. Why do good people do bad things? Are any human beings completely evil? Do we all have good within us? That's what I'm interested in.

I was lucky enough to be raised by a man of great integrity and rectitude. That said, he was also human and had his secret sins, as we all do.

My mother, a teacher, encouraged me to use my creativity as an actual way to make a living, and my father, a Mississippi physician, did two things. First, he taught me that all human beings should be treated equally because no one is better than anyone else, and he never pressured me to become a doctor.

The thing about a small town is that there are people who just remember me as a musician, as a high school football player.

I happen to think Martin Cruz Smith is very good.

I didn't set out to write. It was just something I always could do. Teachers would say, 'you really have this gift,' but I just didn't care.

I pull out on the highway, and a truck hit my driver's door going 70 miles an hour. Took off my right leg from the knee down; broke 20 something bones.