David Baldacci Quotes

crossed her arms and stared back at him. "I really don't have to tell you anything." "No, you really don't." He pointed to the cops and detectives. "But those guys you do. And I'd have a better story prepared than the bullshit you just tried to feed me." Myers rose. "I need to attend to some things." "I'm sure. Calling a really good lawyer should be first on the list." She hurried from the room and disappeared down the hall to her office. On a hunch Puller went over to the bar where one of the waiters was sitting looking exhausted. He held up his set of keys and said, "Ms. Myers asked me to get something from her car, but she was so distraught she forgot to tell me what make and model." The man said, "Oh, it's the blue BMW 750. License plate says 'Grunt.' She parks it in the back lot." "Thanks. ~ David Baldacci

The Pullers sat there for a long time together, big, strong, and courageous men transformed back into two little boys by an old man's loving words that had come a lot later than they should have. ~ David Baldacci

He had started to forget what it was like to hit one out of the park. After Sullivan ~ David Baldacci

Politics is a dirty, ruthless business, Agent Robie. It makes the intelligence sector look relatively honorable by comparison. ~ David Baldacci

Pender laughed. Verify? In this day and age? Who cares about verifying anything? It's all about the speed. Who gets there first defines the truth. You know that as well as any man living. ~ David Baldacci

Will paint in pleasing colors." "How do you know which colors to use?" I asked. "There are instructions for each item on your workstation. ~ David Baldacci

and ventured into countries where girls ~ David Baldacci

Everyone has choices. You make them and then you live with the consequences. ~ David Baldacci

Confidence is one thing, disrespect is quite another. (Justice Elizabeth Knight) ~ David Baldacci

But if I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything. ~ David Baldacci

Some people take 10 years to write a book and some can do one in under a year. ~ David Baldacci

Libraries rock! Not a sermon, just a fact. As a kid I was a library rat and books changed my life. They can change yours. ~ David Baldacci

In some ways, it was far easier to be bad than good. When you're bad, you don't care what happens to anyone other than yourself. When you're trying to do god, you have to worry about everyone. ~ David Baldacci

Inside his head. It was said that savants, ~ David Baldacci

The truth always matters, ~ David Baldacci

entirely clear over the screams of the crowds. The ~ David Baldacci

IF U WANT TO KICK THE TIGER ASS BECAREFULL OF HIS TEETH FIRST. ~ David Baldacci

They were not rich. They were not powerful. They were truly the forgotten. ~ David Baldacci

It's my experience that most folk who ride trains could care less where they're going. For them it's the journey itself and the people they meet along the way. You see, at every stop this train makes, a little bit of America, a little bit of your country, gets on and says hello. ~ David Baldacci

If you think too much about things, life sometimes just passes you by. ~ David Baldacci

To bring him back, alive rather than dead." Puller kept his mouth shut. "I want to know what you've found out ~ David Baldacci

Find something to believe in, Carter, other than your work. Because when you leave this life, you leave work behind. If that's all you have, then you have nothing. And eternity is a long time for nothing. ~ David Baldacci

The world is complicated, so people seek complicated solutions. And there's nothing wrong with that because simple answers don't usually work. But sometimes the answers are simple and people still refuse to see them. - Edgar Roy ~ David Baldacci

Just know that one answer over the other does not equal a solution. It's only a decision. ~ David Baldacci

You had to take life as it came. It gave no quarter, spared no feelings. Limited no pain. Put no ceiling on happiness. ~ David Baldacci

for once in a long time, he felt good. No worries, just possibilities. Endless possibilities. ~ David Baldacci

that that won't be the case." "I don't trust ~ David Baldacci

Libraries are the mainstays of democracy. The first thing dictators do when taking over a country is close all the libraries, because libraries are full of ideas and differences of opinion, all the things we say we want in a free and open society. So keep 'em, fund 'em, embrace and cherish 'em. ~ David Baldacci

Love is like a good piece of wood: It just gets stronger and stronger as the years go by. ~ David Baldacci

Can't say a body ever gets used to hard work ~ David Baldacci

Was it a fire in the kitchen?
No, a bomb in the basement. ~ David Baldacci

A number of the wrought-iron fences that encircled the courtyards and gardens of the homes were painted the color of gold on their European-inspired spikes and finials. ~ David Baldacci

For DeHaven it was well worth the extra money to a federal budget that had always allocated more to war than it ever did to peaceful purposes. For a fraction of the cost of one missile he could purchase on the open market every work the library needed to round out its rare books collection. Yet politicians believed that missiles kept you safe, whereas actually books did, and for a simple reason. Ignorance caused wars, and people who read widely were seldom ignorant. ~ David Baldacci

With a perfect memory did not come a perfect mind, or resolute decisions. Sometimes with perfection on one end of the equation, one was left with stark imprecision on the other. Perhaps it was nature's way of balancing things. ~ David Baldacci

You can't die, Roy."
"Why?"
"I've got a pretty good feeling I'm going to need one kick-ass lawyer, and you're the only one I know. ~ David Baldacci

It is asking a lot. But when you're attempting to do something truly extraordinary, isn't it fair to ask a lot in return? ~ David Baldacci

In his mind progress was always to be measured in inches, especially when you didn't have yards or even feet of success to show off. ~ David Baldacci

But in the end, you can't kill what you can't see coming ... ~ David Baldacci

I'm ever curious about the world. ~ David Baldacci

They rode in a cab to the rendezvous spot. It was a warehouse, which didn't surprise Shaw.
"It's usually a damn warehouse," he said to Reggie. ~ David Baldacci

Half truths were a wonderful way to inspire credibility. ~ David Baldacci

Facing fear is better than running from it," he said.
"What if it's fear you can't beat?"
"Then it might be better to be dead," he answered. ~ David Baldacci

Because life doesn't work that way. You can do everything perfectly. Do everything you think you're supposed to be doing. Fulfill every expectation that other people may have. And you still won't get the results you think you deserve. Life is crazy and maddening and often makes no sense. ~ David Baldacci

The door opened and Decker was looking down at a small, balding man with a gray beard and wearing dark glasses. He was well into his seventies. ~ David Baldacci

Nearly the physical size of Los Angeles, Bukchang housed fifty thousand prisoners who were kept in by, among many other things, a four-meter-high fence. If you were sent here, so was your entire family-the classic definition of guilt by association, which extended to infants, toddlers, teenagers, siblings, spouses, and grandparents. Babies born here shared the same guilt as their families. Unauthorized babies born here, because intercourse and pregnancies were strictly regulated, were killed. Age and personal culpability meant nothing, and a toddler and an ancient grand- mother were treated the same-brutally. ~ David Baldacci

National security trumps a lot. It can trampke civil rights. It can denude personal liberties. But it cannot and never will triumph over political gamesmanship. - Kelly Paul ~ David Baldacci

Supremely noble act in a world more and more devoid of anything remotely virtuous. ~ David Baldacci

That was your past, Michelle. You can't live in the past.
Sure you can, Sean. If you're not too thrilled with your future. ~ David Baldacci

It had always bothered Tom that women thought they could win an argument with a man simply by appealing to his baser instincts, by holding out the mere possibility of award-winning carnal knowledge. It was the gender equivalent of a preemptive nuclear strike. He thought it unfair and, quite frankly, disrespectful of the entire male population. ~ David Baldacci

Why the hell don't kids call their parents anymore? Why don't they answer their phones? Why all this crazy texting shit? ~ David Baldacci

Pointed out. But the dust disturbances could easily have been covered up as well. Only they weren't, which told Robie that the shooter didn't care if the sniper's nest was discovered. He picked up a long piece of shoe molding that had broken off, knelt down, and, using ~ David Baldacci

Depending on the situation, sometimes you can know a person better in ten minutes than someone you have crossed paths with all your life. ~ David Baldacci

We deal with them all, ~ David Baldacci

It would actually constitute more than a miracle, he realised. It would take divine intervention plus luck, plus some unknown element of cosmic wizardry. ~ David Baldacci

You mean on YouTube?" "No, I mean I was watching the game when you got laid out. Hardest hit I've ever seen. I don't know how you survived it, Amos, I really don't." "Why'd ~ David Baldacci

And upper to midcervical spinal cord, above C4. ~ David Baldacci

your butt somehow." Jordan shrugged. "I just took ~ David Baldacci

You're lying to me, aren't you?" "Pretty much, yeah." "Thanks for being honest about your dishonesty. ~ David Baldacci

Diamond Skinner had had no material possessions to his name and yet had been the happiest creature Lou had ever met. He and God would no doubt get along famously. ~ David Baldacci

Astonishingly slimy and dangerous ~ David Baldacci

Really good liars always work in something true to make the lie more plausible. - John Puller ~ David Baldacci

Farming was a risky proposition under even the best of circumstances. Folks who toiled in the dirt could do everything right and a drought or an early freeze could come and wipe them out. ~ David Baldacci

The oldest of North Korean labor camps, Bukchang had been hosting dissidents and alleged enemies of the state since the fifties . ~ David Baldacci

People who attempted to end their lives, no matter how amateurishly they might do so at first, often got better at it, with the result that on the third, fourth or sixth try, they ended up on a slab with a coroner poking around their remains. ~ David Baldacci

You know what happened to her predecessors?"
"Of course. It's sort of like the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. Bad things happen to them."
"Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
"You know, in Harry Potter. ~ David Baldacci

have under his thumb powerful congressmen, senators, even the vice president himself, ~ David Baldacci

Give an economist a result you want, and he'll find the numbers to justify it. ~ David Baldacci

Vega, death is only fear. Without fear, there is no death. Without death, there are no bars. Without bars, there is only freedom. ~ David Baldacci

The business of politics, which essentially meant screwing others before they got around to screwing you. ~ David Baldacci

Why are trains so popular at Christmas? People get on to meet their country over the holidays. ~ David Baldacci

-"Why do men like you do the job you do? It can't be for the medals. And it's certainly not the money."
Stone said nothing.
-"Why then? God and country?"
-"Both simpler and more complex, Mr. President."
-"What then?"
-"So I can look at myself in the mirror. ~ David Baldacci

You learn a lot about a person when she saves your life, - Mecho ~ David Baldacci

A child's permanent personality is substantially formed by age six. ~ David Baldacci

He looked around at the others ... They were all staring at their computers, or reading books or newspapers. Not one of them has noticed the weather. Maybe that's how the world was now ... Everyone was so wrapped up in his or her own little world that no one ever really saw anything anymore. ~ David Baldacci

Damn it, why couldn't I have a photographic memory!"
"Thank God you don't," Caleb exclaimed in a disgusted tone.
"What makes you say that?" Reuben demanded hotly.
"Because then she'd be calling you Ruby, and I'd have to be sick to my stomach. ~ David Baldacci

As a lawyer, as a private citizen, you see a lot of injustice. You see a lot of people who should have been punished and are not, and people who were punished wrongfully are not vindicated. Fiction is sort of a way to set the record straight, and let people at least believe that justice can be achieved and the right outcomes can occur. ~ David Baldacci

Why was it he was more comfortable with the dead than the living? The answer was relatively simple. The dead conveniently never asked questions. ~ David Baldacci

Tazburg, Mise, Divine, South Ridge. He read the names off the ~ David Baldacci

Wait a minute; I thought the Battles didn't pay the ransom." "No, they did but they got it back - well, at least most of it. ~ David Baldacci

bet, he'll be back in prison before long," said the older guard. ~ David Baldacci

The military is a very cool world to write about. I went down to Ft. Benning, Ga., for military training, and I learned a lot about soldiers and officers and why they joined up and what their life has been like. ~ David Baldacci

This surprised him, her turning down his invitation to dine with him, and his face showed it. "Katie."
She rose. Their gazes locked for an extended moment. "Good luck, Shaw."
She hesitated for another second, long enough for him to say something to keep her there. Yet he remained quiet.
She turned and left.
Shaw sat there for several beats, a massive struggle going on inside his mind. Finally, he threw some euros on the table, hustled from the restaurant, and looked up and down the crowded street.
But Katie was already gone. ~ David Baldacci

It would cut into him at unpredictable moments, like a gutting knife made of colored light. ~ David Baldacci

A smart man understood that victory was not inevitable. An even smarter man knew that defeat was never really total if you figured out how to handle the aftermath with skill and just the right spin.
And the smartest men of all, even when they lost, they actually won. ~ David Baldacci

The human spirit was the strongest medicine on earth. And sometimes all it needed was a little encouragement to pull off a miracle. ~ David Baldacci

It's the hardest thing in the world to put yourself in someone else's place, try to really feel what they feel, figure out why they do the things they do. Especially when it's easier to stick a label on something. Or someone. ~ David Baldacci

As my father wrote, one's courage, hope, and spirit can be severely tried by the happenstance of life. But as I learned on this Virginia mountain, so long as one never loses faith, it is impossible to ever truly be alone. ~ David Baldacci

He couldn't leave the area and couldn't knowingly go within a hundred feet of someone with a criminal record. He couldn't do drugs and he couldn't own or carry a weapon. The ~ David Baldacci

Messing with you. I'm just trying to ~ David Baldacci

I know. I admit that. You're working with NSC now. And the FBI." "So?" "So how would you like to be part of a joint effort with NIC?" "I already have enough alphabet letters, thanks." "You ~ David Baldacci

Just because I work there doesn't mean I have to drink all the Kool-Aid. - Veronica Knox ~ David Baldacci

People can lie with words, but their faces, and in particular their eyes, give them away. They ~ David Baldacci

For the loss of Chung-Cha. And she was scared. "Hey, guys, come on in," said Julie warmly. Her guardian, Jerome Cassidy, had recovered from his injuries at the hands of ~ David Baldacci

Toward the small pond that he had seen before. The walls of fire ended there. An instant later the remains of the cottage exploded. He ducked and rolled again from the concussive force, almost pitching into the right side of the wall of fire. He rose and redoubled his efforts, thinking that he would reach the water. Water was a great antidote to fire. But as he neared the edge of the pond, something struck him. No scum. No algae on the surface although the ground around was full of it. What could kill green scum? And why was he being forced to run right toward the one thing that could possibly save him? Robie tossed his gun over the top of the wall of flames, pulled off his jacket, covered his head and hands with it, and threw himself through the wall of flames on the left side. ~ David Baldacci

As accustomed as he was to the ever-expanding muscle of technology, even Jason Archer had to shake his head occasionally over what was really out there. Iris scanners were also used to closely monitor worker productivity. Jason grimaced. Truth be known, Orwell had actually underestimated. ~ David Baldacci

While it was true that the president of the United States was the world's ultimate juggler of tasks, it was also a fact that the First Lady, traditionally, was no slouch in that department either. ~ David Baldacci

Confidence is inspiring. Yet so often misplaced. (Robert Thornhill) ~ David Baldacci

Nothing, absolutely nothing, was above corruption so long as human beings were involved. ~ David Baldacci

Katie James kept waking up. It was nothing unusual; it was just how she was. A noise here, an internal thought there, a nightmare that seemed so real she could touch it, kept hammering away. She finally rose, got some water and settled in an armchair, flicked on a reading light, and picked up the latest Lee Child thriller. ~ David Baldacci

Had a way of looking one over without seeming to that any Secret Service agent would be proud of, ~ David Baldacci