Lee Child Quotes
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Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of telltale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers.
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People say that knowledge is power. The more knowledge, the more power. Which makes you just about the most powerful person on earth. When it comes to killing people. And then getting away with it.
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Reacher hated turning back. He liked to press on, dead ahead, whatever. Everyone's life needed an organizing principle, and relentless forward motion was Reacher's.
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So he died, because for a split second he got brave. But not then. He died much later, after the split second of bravery had faded into long hours of wretched gasping fear, and after the long hours of fear had exploded into long minutes of insane screaming panic.
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Jack Reacher stayed alive, because he got cautious. He got cautious because he heard an echo from his past. He had a lot of past, and the echo was from the worst part of it.
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'Plan A is to hitch a ride out of here. But if they want a war, then plan B is to win it.'
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People have their reasons for giving rides, all of them different. Maybe they hitched a lot when they were younger and now they're settled and comfortable they want to put back what they took out. Like a circular thing. Maybe they have charitable natures. Or maybe they're just lonely and want a little conversation.
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'I like to know things. I'm hungry for knowledge.'
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overwhelming force indiscriminately applied, not giving up on it well after he was sure no more was required.
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I thought: should I be worried? I was under arrest. In a town where I'd never been before. Apparently for murder. But I knew two things. First, they couldn't prove something had happened if it hadn't happened. And second, I hadn't killed anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time, anyway.
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Friday. Five o'clock in the afternoon. Maybe the hardest time to move unobserved through a city. Or, maybe the easiest. Because at five o'clock on a Friday nobody pays attention to anything. Except the road ahead.
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The guy that was standing said, 'We don't want you here.'Reacher said, 'You're confusing me with someone who gives a shit what you want.''You won't get served in here.''Won't I?''Not a hope.''You could order for me.''And then what?''Then I could eat your lunch.'
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He had no living relatives anywhere capable of leaving him a fortune in a will. He owed no money. He had never stolen anything, never cheated anybody. Never fathered any children. He was on as few pieces of paper as it was possible for a human being to get. He was just about invisible.
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The cop climbed out of his car exactly four minutes before he got shot. He moved like he knew his fate in advance.
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The driver wanted Reacher more than he wanted an undamaged front bumper.
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People say that knowledge is power. The more knowledge, the more power. Suppose you knew the winning numbers for the lottery? All of them? Not guessed them, not dreamed them, but really knew them? What would you do? You would run to the store. You would mark those numbers on the play card. And you would win...Same for killing people.
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You have to ration your opponents' victories. You have to mete them out, slowly and meanly. You have to make your opponents subliminally grateful for every little bit of compliance. That way you get away with giving up ten small losses a day, rather than ten big ones.
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'Best we can do. And we have to do something.'
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'Why not go live on the beach?''These things are a way of keeping score. I'm sure you have your own way of keeping score.'I nodded. 'I compare the numbers of answers I get to the number of questions I ask.''And how are you doing with that?''Lifetime average is close to a hundred per cent.'
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'Cold?' Reacher said. 'This is nothing.'