Nelson DeMille Quotes

The air was so thick with testosterone that the wallpaper was getting soggy.

Psychology is a soft weapon but you can take out
more enemy battalions with leaflets and radio broadcasts than with high explosives.

The world has gotten smaller and more accessible since I first started writing in the 70's.

The window on the right featured contemporary bestselling authors like Brad Meltzer, James Patterson, David Baldacci, Nelson DeMille, and others who make more money writing about what I do than I make doing what I do.

I honestly don't know how anyone functions in this society without a law degree.

Credo quia impossibile.' I believe it because it is impossible.

There are Mafia families that have bought magnificent houses on the North Shore, although not yet the great estates because they don't want that kind of high profile.

I wasn't sure about that, but one never knows. Sometimes a neighborhood, like a culture or civilization, is strong enough to absorb and acculturate any number of newcomers. But I don't know if that's true around here any longer. The outward forms and appearances look the same - [ ... ]- but the substance has been altered.

I turned to the Times crossword puzzle and asked Kate, "What's the definition of a moderate Arab?" "I don't know." "A guy who ran out of ammunition.

Ernest Hemingway was the author I drew inspiration from.

If everyone howled at every injustice, every act of barbarism, every act of unkindness, then we would be taking the first step towards a real humanity.

Chemical and biological attacks are scary and will kill a lot of people but don't rise to the level of nuclear.

I do write my manuscripts by hand, in pencil on legal pads. Then they are typed on a word processor by my typist.

Everyone looked pensive, which is good cover-up for clueless.

What these people were trying to create or re-create here in this new world is beyond me. I can't put myself in their minds or their hearts, but I can sympathize with their struggle for an identity, with their puzzlement, which has troubled Americans from the very beginning - Who are we, where do we fit in, where are we going?

An Englishman once said that he found it easier to be a member of a club than of the human race because the bylaws were shorter, and he knew all the members personally. That sounds about right.

Well, no one ever said the truth would make you happy - only free.

I don't like mysteries, which is why I want to solve them. It bothers me that there are things I don't know.

Concurring.' But now we know what I suspected. Two people on the board voted for acquittal, which means there are

Most of my books are about contemporary subjects, and the world changes so fast that I'm lucky when events haven't overtaken the book I'm writing at the moment.

I have no plans to use the Internet as the main subject of a novel.

He understood, too, that they had not necessarily been chosen to succeed, or even to live. But they'd been chosen to find the Holy Grail that was within themselves. And that's what this was always about; the Grail was a phantom and the journey was inward, into their hearts and souls.

I read 'Time', 'Newsweek' and 'The Economist'.

I tried to picture a bunch of guys in blue suits running around a beachside neighborhood, knocking on doors and flashing Fed creds. That should cause a stampede of illegal aliens heading south.

I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting.

Use a gun that works every time. As George Washington said, 'All skill is in vain when an angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket.

It's really scary when you have a moment of temporary sanity.

I used the pen name because I knew I wanted to write better novels under my own name someday.

Never have sex with a woman who has more problems than you do.

The journey home is never a direct route; it is, in fact, always circuitous, and somewhere along the way, we discover that the journey is more significant than the destination and that the people we meet along the way will be the traveling companions of our memories forever.

There's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit; burning, scalding, stench, consumption!

Mrs. Corey still uses her maiden name for business, or when she wants to pretend she doesn't know me.

From the unknown, through the unknown, to the unknown. Put your hand into the hand of God. It will be all right.

It's good to stay as close to real life as you can, and then kind of dress it up.

Confrontational is when I pull my gun. Argumentative is when I pull the trigger.

...."When I was in boarding school, which is English-run, I read a very beautiful passage---something that George VI said in his Christmas message to the English people, in the darkest year of the war, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown. And he replied, Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a knownew way.

I read about a John Shelby of Thackham, England, who in 1672 was thrown from his horse into a thicket where he found an iron pot containing more than five hundred gold coins. According to the treasure trove laws of England, all hidden or lost property belonged to the Crown. However, Shelby refused to give the gold to the king's officers, and he was arrested, tried for treason, and beheaded. This was probably a favorite story of the IRS.

I don't name sources.

There is no harder worker than a former government employee who has discovered the word incentive.

How you handle life depends a lot on how you handle plan B, or if you have a plan B.

I think it's more difficult now to write a spy thriller with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many authors have tried, but few have succeeded in capturing the interest of readers.

Most accidents, I'm convinced, are God's way of getting rid of stupid people. Or if you believe in Darwinism, you wonder why there are any stupid people left in the world. Well, I guess they can reproduce before they remove themselves from the gene pool.

The American dream was not supposed to look like this, and when men went off the war, too often other men came in the night to the bedroom at the back of the long, narrow trailers. In fact, I had lived there and had gone off to war, and someone took of my place in the bed and took of my young wife. But that was few wars ago, and so much has happened since , that the only lingering bitterness left is that the bastard also took my dog.

I was trained in Army Intelligence, but spent most of my army career in the infantry. But like many people of my generation, I was very much caught up in the Cold War, and books and movies about espionage.

I sometimes use some personality traits to fashion part of a character. Most of my characters are composites of either people I know or people in the public eye.

I thought again of how Tobin had already killed five good people and was about to be the cause of two more dying. I couldn't believe that this little turd had actually caused all this death and misery. The only explanation I had for it was that short people with beady eyes and big appetites were ruthless and dangerous.

We're all pilgrims on the same journey - but some pilgrims have better road maps.

I try to use short sentences, short paragraphs and short chapters to keep the reader's interest.

A lot of our perception of history is influenced by inaccurate movies.

I continued, "The painting shows this fish with a big eye and a halo, floating in air, and underneath the fish are all these Native Americans having sex." "What? What does that have to do with Custer's Last Stand?" "Well, the painting is titled, Holy Mackerel, Look at All Those Fucking Indians.

I've always been fascinated by the Gold Coast. The homes themselves are spectacular, unlike anything you'll see other than in Newport, Bar Harbor or Palm Beach. It's a very special area that, because of local demographics, is not going to survive much longer.

... made me promise to cut down on the drinking and swearing, which I have. Unfortunately, this has left me dim-witted and nearly speechless.

Detective Ramos confided in me, 'If something happens to you on my watch my ass is O-U-T.' 'How do you think I'd feel? D-E-A-D.

Lawrence Kelter is an exciting new novelist, who reminds me of an early Robert Ludlum.

Nostalgia is basically the ability to forget the things that sucked.

You get a promotion?"
"I got a polite, but firm suggestion to be a team player. [ ... ]"
"You got off easy. One of my commanding officers once threw a paperweight at me."
"We're a bit more subtle.

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Absolutely breathtaking, nail-biting, and edge-of-your-seat. Michael Koryta is a master at maintaining suspense and a hell of a good writer. THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD is one of the best chase-and-escape novels you'll read this year-or any other year. The pace never lets up.

We're all
criminally insane, but most of us have good control mechanisms,
internal and external. Remove the controls and you have a killer.

I generally unwind by having dinner with close friends.

A big Russian lady, who seemed to be the household cook, supervised the making of zakuski
Russian hors d'oeuvres, which unfortunately didn't include pigs-in-a-blanket. What kind of party is this?

As with real estate, what matters with bullet holes is location, location, location.

Job happiness is directly proportional to the distance you are from the home office.

There is no terra incognito left.

And there was that pregnant silence in the air, the silence between a husband and wife who have just had words, and it is unlike any other silence except perhaps the awful stillness you hear between the flash of an atomic bomb and the blast. Five, four, three, two, one.

Kate had never been married, so she had no way of knowing if I was a normal husband. This has been good for our marriage.

I thought to myself, what is everyone's worst fear? Nuclear terrorism in America.

As he'd thought, and as he'd always known, Henry and Vivian were better suited for each other. But better is not best, and though he was angry - and hurt - he was also concerned about Vivian. He still liked Henry, but not as much as Henry liked himself. He would have told Vivian this - as a friend - but she might think it was coming from a jealous ex-lover. So he wasn't going to say anything now.

How you doing at 26 Fed?"
"I'm growing and learning, meeting new challenges with confidence and enthusiasm while developing good work ethics and people skills."
"I'm surprised they haven't fired your ass."
"Me too.

She asked me, "Was your divorce nasty?" "Not at all. The marriage was nasty.

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.