Quotes from Lisa Gardner

In this day and age of racial tension, gender fluidity, and political polarization, how do you most define yourself?

I mean, if this guy is her brother, why is she so freakin' anxious to get away from him?

MY PAIN IS NAMED

Pain has a flavor.

We're going to find this girl, we're going to save the day, and then we're going to walk out of this park so we can nail the bastard. Deal? You are a woman after my own heart.

Being a survivor didn't just mean being strong. It meant being lonely. Honestly, truly lonely. Knowing things other people weren't supposed to know. Carrying memories I was desperate to forget and yet still couldn't blank out of my head.

created the first fake company approximately

Anyway, I grew up with a mom who regularly manipulated reality to best suit her needs. I

intentions don't matter in parenting. Kids don't understand what you mean. They understand what you do.

I don't get the big deal myself. If you can die for your country at eighteen, why not have a beer?

Mac was the romantic. He brought her flowers, remembered her favorite song, kissed her on the back of her neck just because. She was the type-A workaholic. Every day an agenda, every hour a task that needed completing. She worked too hard, compartmentalized too little, and probably would have a nervous breakdown before the age of forty, except that Mac would never allow it. He was her rock; while, most likely, she was his ticket to sainthood.

Her hand now rested on the top of her left thigh. Where she had the knife strapped, he guessed, and immediately felt his gut tighten with a shot of good, old-fashioned male lust. He did not know why an armed woman should be so arousing, but man oh man, this one was.

Forging a visa is terroristcell kind of crazy. Or Russian-printed-bills kind of savvy.

No doubt about it: Mac would make an excellent mother.

He should've gone with his father's recommendation and walked in wearing a T-shirt that read "You're only Jealous Because the Voices are Talking to Me.

Men should spend less time with guns and more time in childbirth.

He had puppy-dog eyes, I thought, but there was something different about his gaze. He was trying to meet mine, but remained just off. Not drugs. Asperger's, maybe. Some kind of syndrome, high functioning, but enough to keep him forever separate. He was right—a tougher life in high school.

his loving wife, Catherine, who won the annual Kill a Friend, Maim a Buddy Sweepstakes at LisaGardner.com.

Oh, wait till you meet this guy. Ever watch that show? The medical drama? ER? No, the one with more sex. Grey's Anatomy?

I'm simple when you want me to be complicated. And I'm complicated when you want me to be simple.

It's a tough moment when you have to confront the level of your own complacency.

study. Something you can write up for the American Society of Shrinks—otherwise known

Every woman has a moment in her life when she realizes she genuinely loves a guy, and he's just not worth it.

elementary school. I'd worked hard to find the apartment, hoping that a nice unit