Quotes from Greg Iles

Given the nature of the mind, we'll consider the dreams of sleep to be the past, never quite accurate in recollection, always made to serve our desires (except when haunting us for our sins). And the wakeful present . . . well, it, too, holds its dangers.

A man lives morally all his life, then in one weak moment commits an act that damns him in his own eyes and threatens his liberty, even his life.

The danger is real, Caitlin." "Give me a break. Nobody killed Woodward and Bernstein." "They weren't working in Mississippi.

It's a grim reality, but the river towns are dying in Mississippi, by a slow exsanguination of people and talent that functions like a wasting disease.

The faith of children is an awesome thing to behold. If only we could all be worthy of it.

The thing about kicking open a door to the past is that sometimes what's behind it comes out under its own power.

Looking down the road that runs along the bluff, I spy a solitary figure in the rain. The Turning Angel.

God, I'm trapped in a Southern gothic novel." "You asked for it." She finishes off her martini in a gulp. "I hope nobody's going to ask me to squeal like a pig.

The finger descends, admonitory now. "You children today smirk and turn up your nose when I say old coats and old shoes. But what you don't know—and you better thank God you don't know—is that when you're cold, you'll take whatever coat you can get, and praise Jesus for it.

When you start talking to yourself in a graveyard, it's time to go home.

Men fantasize about wanton women, but when they meet one, they're paralyzed by fear.

because the beautiful way he speaks in public is just another cloak he wears to hide what lies beneath his skin

A man's biggest enemy is his mouth.

Southern women don't show their pain to anybody. They aren't raised that way. But they feel it.

Broad is the gate that leads to destruction, but narrow the way that leads to salvation. . . .

Carl Jung's admonition: If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you.

The female memory defies explanation.

learned that the larger world lay not across oceans but within the human mind and heart.

Only in the shadow of death do we sense the true velocity of time—while adrenaline blasts through our systems, eternity becomes tangible and all else blurs into background.

Reality abides in the eyes.

But fear and danger aren't always directly proportional. We're all terrified by rattlesnakes, but the spider we brush off our sleeve with hardly a thought is far more likely to hurt us.

Remember what Aristotle said!" she cries. "Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers. And Horace!" Horace? "What did Horace say, Pithy?" "Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children, because they're more certain they are their own.

We're witnessing the last gasp of white America, and it's a lulu. Our people think the land of liberty's their God-given country club and the caddies have forgotten their place. But revolution's coming . . . just not the one they think.

treachery, weakness, envy, fanaticism—the most destructive forces available to man.