Quotes from David Archer

The one on the right had an occasional table beside it with an ashtray, a pipe and a very old hardback edition of Sense and Sensibility. I figured that had been his chair since he was eight years old, when he had his first pipe and got hooked on Jane Austen.

even the finest examples of men and women are capable of horrific acts under the right circumstances,

I could raise you to three hundred a week, and we'd leave the current room and board as part of it. How would that sound?" Indie thought it over. "And where would the office be? If it's here at your house, I can handle that, cause it lets me be here for Kenzie." "Of

blinked a couple of times. "Danny, I've been awake for about fifteen minutes, and haven't even opened my Starbuck's yet. What the heck are you talkin' about?" "I'm sayin', maybe we're goin' about this all the wrong way, tryin' to find dealers

I do like a man who knows where the bread comes from.

Joy began to feel the weight press down on her. That terrible weight that saps the muscles and grays the day. The one that starts in your head and presses every thought down. Joy got low, and when people are low, they turn to anything for help.

by and large too many good soldiers get shot, and too few politicians.

His words were creating a bewildering maze of grammatically inappropriate junctures. It was the kind of maze where small, white mice died without ever finding the little lever.

He was small but his eyebrows were big. In fact they were the biggest eyebrows I had ever seen. They were large, luxuriant and very black.

I don't know, Mr. Mason," he said at last, "whether evil is like a weed that grows in suitable conditions, or whether it is a condition that occurs in some human beings. Be that as it may, I have no doubt at all that the men who run those cartels are evil, in the deepest, simplest, plainest sense of the word. Evil.

My brain said it would be very difficult for the Russians to control French officials that way, especially since Ukraine. My gut told my brain it was talking out of my ass. It was a very organic and slightly surreal conversation

think he understands that you wouldn't do that

We operate on the philosophy that it's better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Content?" Neil asked. "Wouldn't that be an emotional response?" Noah shook his head. "No. Contentedness comes from an awareness of security. As long as you're not in danger, and there's no immediate situation that threatens your security or causes you discomfort, then you should be content. And speaking of content, breakfast is ready.

Evil is contagious, Mr. Mason, and it feeds on greed and power.

When things happen, they tend to happen suddenly.

blaming the Republicans for everything, Republicans are blaming the Democrats and nobody seems to want to take responsibility for anything.

time. She scanned through its memory and found nothing but a dog peeing on Daniel's

The real world, I'm afraid, is a lot more complex and dangerous, and sometimes it takes the ugly parts of life to keep the beautiful parts alive.

Joe's Mortuary, you stab 'em, we slab 'em.

there are people in this world who either give or take. The givers walk into a room and they, believe it or not, give. They make that room brighter by offering it any type of succor that it requires. They help people when they need it. They are an ear that listens. A voice that gives advice. Or they are just simply able to share the weight of burden. They offer compassion, sympathy, a rosey smile that lifts you up. They inspire.

The takers are the opposite. They are vampires who bring with them shadow. They suck from people. Drain energy from them. They seek sympathy, but are incapable of giving it. They wish to blame all their self-created ills on anyone they can pin them on, any excuse, any reason why they're not where they supposedly deserve to be. They bring the people around them down. Their wives, their children, their work colleagues, their communities. All they want is to take and never give.

Again, this exists in people to differing degrees, and it is possible to have someone who is neutral—right in the middle of the spectrum. But Jimmy Palmer isn't neutral. He is about as far down in the dark depths as you can go. He is a sociopath. A psychopath. A man who has no feeling for those of his fellow creatures. He sees his family as his own to do whatever he wants with.

Just because you can do something that may benefit yourself doesn't necessarily make it right to do so.