Andrew Vachss Quotes

Family' is not just a biological word, it's an an operative one.

If love would die along with death, this life wouldn't be so hard.

The idea that you're not a writer until you're published is a lie.

Roots are nice, but a tree can't run.

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.

We don't protect our young, and we tolerate predators of our own species.

[I] settled down with the Daily News and the Post, glad to be back with journalism where all murders are "brutal," all prosecutors are "tough," and all blondes are
"attractive." And any lawyer who cooperates with the reporter is
"high-powered.

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.

There isn't a liquor store in the world that lets you buy on credit. So, if a man walks into a liquor store after dark, it's either because he's got money … or because he doesn't.

Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.

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.

It isn't much use writing slogans on a wall if you plan to total the building.

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.

Max Allan Collins blends fact and fiction like no other writer.

Courier 12 is the Type-O blood of fonts - works just as good for a 'N.Y. Times' op-ed as a screenplay or a short story.

Once convicted, perpetrators of child abuse I've met try and appeal to me on the basis that they themselves were abused children. The problem with appealing to me that way is that for every beast that emerges from that crucible, I know thousands who refuse to imitate the oppressor. And to me, of course, those are the greatest heroes.

In fact, the real mystery of life is not why a tortured child becomes a serial killer, but why a tortured child *doesn't*. That's the area we're looking at; that's the area of potential hope. That's the Rosetta stone to all this.

Biology does not make a man a father--nor a woman a mother. We are what we do.

A dog is like a person - he needs a job and a family to be what he's meant to be.

The third person narrator, instead of being omniscient, is like a constantly running surveillance tape.

Life is a fight, but not everyone's a fighter. Otherwise, bullies would be an endangered species.

Two rules: You enter without breaking. And you remember that nobody misses what you don't take.

The goal of a true family is not that their children follow in their footsteps, but that their children surpass them in all ways.

The maltreated child cries 'I hurt.' Unheard or unheeded, that cry becomes prophecy.

All children are born pure egoists. They perceive their needs to the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied.

If you can't be counted on, you won't be counted in.

When you hunt predators, the best camouflage is weakness.

A kid in an abusive home has far fewer rights than any POW. There is no Geneva Convention for kids.

It's the family you choose that counts.

In some neighborhoods, if you want to walk down the streets, you've got two choices - look down, or look hard.

Perfection cannot be achieved by men," he told me. "Our highest calling is the pursuit of perfection. My haiku will be finished when I die, but it will never be perfect.

I write everything in Courier 12 because I write for publication, not pleasure.

There is no Constitutional right to prey on others. The Internet is just a piece of technology, like the telephone. Society has the right to modify its uses.

Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change.

Anyone who says, 'Books don't change anything,' or - more commonly - that crime fiction is the wrong genre for promoting social change - should take a closer look.

My stuff isn't for everyone.

He had the radio turned to some Spanish-language station at a volume that reminded me of the holding tank at Riker's Island - and for an added touch of authenticity he screamed 'Maricon!' and waved his fist out the open window at another driver who had the audacity to attempt to share the road with us.

Victimizers of children are the enemies of any so-called society.

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.

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.

No politician is threatened by the child protective constituency, because it does not exist.

Children know the truth: love is not an emotion, love is behavior.

People who don't have much get ugly about giving up the little they have left.

Max can't hear or speak, but he communicates okay. He wasn't programmed for fear - whoever rolled the genetic dice left that out too. If Mama asked Max to deliver a package to the Devil, Max would go straight to Hell. Unlike others of my acquaintance who had made that particular trip, I had complete confidence that Max would come back. Max the Silent is one tough boy. In fact, he's so infamous that one time over in night court when he was being arraigned for attempted murder, nobody even laughed when the judge told him that he had the right to remain silent. They all knew that Max never attempted to murder anyone.

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.

Ask any experienced defense lawyer: the real risks are for an accused person who is innocent. A guilty defendant has many more options available.

Crime takes the pulse of a culture. It tells us the truth about us as a species.

Without question, I've either got to be a writer, or I fail.

I wanted to ask her what the fuck was wrong but I had a date with a pack of skittish whores.

That's Manhattan today - all the money goes up top, while the infrastructure wastes away from neglect. The famous skyline is a cheap trick now, a sleight-of-hand to draw your eye from the truth, as illusory as a bodybuilder with osteoporosis.

I'm in pursuit of what cannot be achieved: perfection.

Hard" isn't the same as "mean".

I hate bullies. I hate them. I'm not good enough with words to describe how much I hate them.

A free press doesn't mean it's not a tame press.

Take some pleasure from telling him no. My guess was that she worked for the landlord, not

Chronic sexual predators [to Vachss, pedophiles] have crossed an osmotic membrane. They can't step back to the other side - our side. And they don't want to. If we don't kill them or release them, we have but one choice. Call them monsters and isolate them ... I've spoken to many predators over the years. They always exhibit amazement that we do not hunt them. And that when we capture them, we eventually let them go. Our attitude is a deliberate interference with Darwinism - an endangerment of our species.

People are pushing against the fabric of society all the time.

Camouflage doesn't help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle.

Stealing to eat ain't criminal - stealing to be rich is.

Even if sheep could talk, they'd never ask questions.

The Bowery station on the J line is what happens to a neighborhood once politicians realize the people who live there don't vote.

Pervasive abuse and neglect of children is a greater danger to our species than cocaine and Communism combined.

While early childhood experiences may impel, they do not compel. In the end, evil is a matter of choice.

I don't take advances for my books.