Quotes from Nelson DeMille

So, this guy walks into the bar and says to the bartender, 'You know, all lawyers are assholes.' And a guy at the end of the bar says, 'Hey, I heard that. I resent that.' And the first guy says, 'Why? Are you a lawyer?' And the other guy says, 'No, I'm an asshole.

Yes, we say challenged." "Then what happens? They become less than well, then go into an involuntary nonbreathing mode?

His eyes were alert despite the hour and the green chew

Why do I piss people off? What is wrong with me?

I nodded. It was interesting, I thought, how little some things had changed in three hundred years. Here's a situation where the government hires this guy to do its dirty work, he does part of the job but by mistake he creates a political problem for the government, so they try to get not only their money back, but also his fair share, then they frame him, and finally hang him. But somewhere along the line, most of the bucks slipped through their hands.

Tom Walsh doesn't exactly talk down to people, but there's a thin line between him stating the obvious and him thinking he's giving you new information.

I always thought that voluntary arms compliance inspections were sort of like a suspected murderer leading me on a guided tour of his house. No, Detective, there's nothing in that closet of any interest. Now, let me show you my patio.

People her age had some baggage; people my age have whole warehousesful of steamer trunks.

You risked your life once in a war that had enough bombing limitation rules to make sure you didn't hurt anyone but yourself.

In short, drugs are the worst thing that has happened to American law enforcement since Prohibition.

Do you know why Italians don't like Jehovah's Witnesses?" "No… why?" "Italians don't like any witnesses.

I'm not pushy, but Major Johnson was in command now, so I had to strike the right balance between romance and sex.

Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower, we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.

She told me, 'I said for better or worse, Dick, but I never said for lunch.

Henry Mercado, Purcell knew, was comforted by thinking he was protecting the Holy Grail from the Antichrist, or whatever, and he could go to his martyrdom happy in the knowledge that when he met Jesus he could say, 'I saved your cup.

There is a vitality here of people, pursuing their own lives, unburdened by government interference. The price of nearly absolute freedom is borderline anarchy." "A little law and order wouldn't hurt." "Whose law? Whose order? Fascists and Communists have in common the desire to get everyone into lockstep. I don't want to get into lockstep.

if he were honest with himself, he'd understand that his hate was, in fact, a form of respect. You don't bother to hate what you think is contemptible.

Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world.

Pravda, as you know, means 'truth,' and Izvestia means 'news,' and I've heard it said that there is no news in the Truth and no truth in the News.

Americans, they'll have a legal means to recover

As with real estate, what matters with bullet holes is location, location, location. Obviously these holes were in the right locations, because I was convalescing, not decomposing.

early to bed, early to rise, makes a man sneaky and full of lies.

The convenient thing about biological warfare has always been easy deniability, and its untraceable origins.

As he maneuvered the boat, he said, "In the old days of gunboat diplomacy, if some pisspot country attacked Westerners, a naval fleet would assemble and bombard the port city until it burned to the ground. Now… well, the primitive little assholes of the world get away with too much.