Andrew Vachss Quotes
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I want to disabuse people of the idea that knowledge is power. Knowing how to get to Detroit is not the same thing as having the bus fare.
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Roots are nice, but a tree can’t run.
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I believe my publisher has shown a great deal of faith in me over a lot of years but I'm not prepared to be so arrogant to say that the long-term literary value of my work would compensate them for a financial failure.
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Be he the first to stand or the last, a man must stand," the father had told his adoring son. "And if there is only one man, then that man must stand alone." ~Thomas to Bruce Wayne
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If a train is coming at you, closing your eyes won't save you ... but if you look right at it, you at least have a chance to jump.
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He said when the Lord made people He made them all the same for starters. But life marks people. If you know the way, you can read them like maps.
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Cats are the lap-dancers of the animal world. Soon as you stop shelling out, they move on, find another lap. They're furry little sociopaths. Pretty and slick -- in love with themselves. When's the last time you saw a seeing-eye cat?
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From the very second that two people sat together around a fire in the forest, there was another human out there who felt better in the dark.
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The more bullets flying, the less accurate each individual slug has to be.
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Most investigators don't even know what the word means. You stop the cops from using informants and the only crimes they'd ever solve would be those by deranged postal workers who come to work once too often.
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People are pushing against the fabric of society all the time.
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It's the family you choose that counts.
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Fear is an enemy that can be killed only at close range. The closest range of all is intimacy. The deeper the fear is embedded in one’s spirit, the more vulnerable it is.
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The Bowery station on the J line is what happens to a neighborhood once politicians realize the people who live there don't vote.
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A free press doesn't mean it's not a tame press.
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I don't understand people whose gratification is a BMW. You don't know what joy is until you see a kid who was tortured get adopted by a family.
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It isn’t much use writing slogans on a wall if you plan to total the building.
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I don't take advances for my books.
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Victimizers of children are the enemies of any so-called society.
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Evil is a matter of choice. Those people who have been victimized and refuse to imitate their oppressors are in my mind the greatest heroes we have.
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A kid in an abusive home has far fewer rights than any POW. There is no Geneva Convention for kids.
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Two rules: You enter without breaking. And you remember that nobody misses what you don't take.
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Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.
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A dog is like a person—he needs a job and a family to be what he’s meant to be.