David Baldacci Quotes & Sayings

to contact Command Authority, sir? — 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

By not using it. By not believing in it anymore. Belief, having faith in something, is a very powerful thing, — David Baldacci

Stroke he imagined plunging — 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

I mean present the best case possible using whatever facts or near facts are handy. — David Baldacci

Montgomery dude said he killed my parents. — David Baldacci

Woe be to the wug who forgets that destroying one part of a thing does not equal victory — David Baldacci

I can be fat or I can smoke. I can't be both." They — David Baldacci

Who's taking care of you?" "Them, for now," said Julie, indicating Robie and Vance. "Is she in protective — David Baldacci

Facts are irrefutable. Truths coming from those facts can be difficult to accept, particularly when they are of a personal nature. But truths, Agent Puller, cannot be ignored. Any more than lies can. And people do lie to themselves. All the time. We — David Baldacci

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

The green spaces in Pyongyang were immense and many in number, but not as immense as the monuments. — David Baldacci

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

This passage and escaped via the cafeteria or — David Baldacci

Shirt cuffs, and said, Mr. Leopold has been charged with three counts — David Baldacci

Something always leads to something else. - John Puller — David Baldacci

a while. To let John Puller Sr. see what his real priorities were in life. And then, depending on what he decided, they would go from there. Puller folded the letter and slid it back into the envelope. Words from the grave. Or if not the grave, Puller didn't know where. Despite the obvious love and affection she held for her sons, as noted in the letter, Puller came away from reading it more depressed than he had been before. Part of him had hoped that his mother had left her husband. Because that meant she might still be alive. To Puller, this letter meant that his mother most likely was dead. He would take bullets and bombs and jihadist fanatics trying to rip his life from him over that. You fought for the flag and country you represented. But you really fought for the guy beside you. Here, Puller was alone. It was just him and a vanished mother to whom he had given all of his heart. As he stood there looking down at the envelope, depression — David Baldacci

Turned back around before she could focus on him. It was at this moment that the black-robed Judge Christian Abernathy stepped into the courtroom. He was old, bespectacled, and frail, and his white hair, what was left of — David Baldacci

It was officially known as Kwan-li-so Number 18. That meant Penal Labor Colony in Korean. It was a concentration camp. It was a gulag. It actually was hell, near the Taedong River in North Korea's P'yongan-namdo province. — David Baldacci

I'd read a lot of thrillers about politicians and presidents, but never one where you flip the stereotypes and make good people bad and bad people good. — David Baldacci

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

that that won't be the case." "I don't trust — 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

A Mexican border town just across the line from Brownsville, Texas, one of the most dangerous places on earth. — David Baldacci

Rinehart added, "Which means he's on the East Coast. Or at least he was." Puller continued to stare at Carter. "When did — 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

Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it? — David Baldacci

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

That was the way it was, the burial ritual. You set them in the earth and walked away to keep living, until it was your turn to be left behind. — David Baldacci

When a poor man gives something, that is a sacrifice indeed. When a rich man gives something, it hardly rises to the same level. — David Baldacci

Time doesn't really heal, it just makes you not to give a crap — David Baldacci

time - quite the reverse. Puller hadn't even reached his Malibu when he heard the man. — David Baldacci

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

the laundry, and took, in amicable — David Baldacci

But protagonists are protagonists and heroes are heroes. — 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

Across the room he had placed a mirror he'd found in her bathroom on a table. It was angled so that he could see her face reflected in it, while he remained hidden from her. — David Baldacci

You ask too many questions," snapped Cletus.
I kept my gaze on Roman. "that's because I get too few answers. — David Baldacci

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

Human beings are infinitely fallible, completely unreliable. Science is not. Science is absolute. Under strict principles, if you do A and B, then C will occur. This rarely happens if you inject the inefficiences of humanity into the process. — David Baldacci

Trapped in a trap of your own making. — 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

It was not known precisely how many labor camps there were in North Korea, although the international consensus was six. The fact that they were numbered and those numbers reached at least as high as twenty-two was an indicator of their pervasiveness. At least two hundred thousand North Koreans, or nearly one percent of the entire population, called these labor camps home. — David Baldacci

The avenues he had taken as a young man had pretty much dictated what the remaining years of his life would be like. — David Baldacci

Anyone who's lived has lost somebody. — David Baldacci

It was botched. A traffic police officer intervened and the whole plan fell apart. But that was from low-level external sources and had nothing to do with us. Our strike will be quick and clean. And it will succeed." "And you have your team in place? — David Baldacci

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

Miz Louisa, she believed in God with all her soul. But she don't subscribe to church much. She say the way some folk run they's churches, it take God right out cha heart.' - Eugene Randall — David Baldacci

engine, picked up the pages, ripped off the rubber band, and — 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

How did you get on to her? — David Baldacci

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

You are a danger to her and all of Wormwood, Vega, do you not understand that? — David Baldacci

In every thriller written about Washington, particularly after 9/11, there are good guys and there are bad guys, and there's no gray area at all. — David Baldacci

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

the parking lot out there, the right and left are reversed. — David Baldacci

But if they are adopted there is no traitor blood issue, — David Baldacci

He (John Puller) wanted to intimidate. Intimidated people with a guilty conscience often made mistakes. — David Baldacci

A pretty accurate rule of thumb is the people who did the most talk about it the least. The blowhards are the ones who did squat. — David Baldacci

Thus, he and his gun had been sent to do the deed, in the interests of national security, which seemed to be a catchall to justify any death, anywhere, any time. — David Baldacci

There's a phrase that critics of economic forecasting like to use: Give an economist a result you want, and he'll find the numbers to justify it. This entire city is filled with number crunchers who look at the exact same data and interpret it in widely disparate ways on everything from the federal budget deficit to the Social Security surplus." "Meaning that data can be manipulated." "Of course it can, depending on who's paying the meter and whose political agenda is being furthered, — David Baldacci

It had been so long since we were a family that I had almost forgotten the joy that came with having one. All the small and large moments, many that I had taken for granted while they were occuring, no doubt bolstered by the certainty that there would be many more.
Yet such endearing and memorable engagements in life are promised to no one. They come and go and one has to be aware that there is no assurance they will ever come again. It made me tremble to think what I had lost. — David Baldacci

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

far less than one block in Brooklyn. — David Baldacci

To Aunt Peggy, an angel on earth if ever there was one — David Baldacci

Everybody's got somewhere to go. Just takes some folks longer to figure out where to. — David Baldacci

But for what reason? Council, — David Baldacci

Normal people don't grow up to do the sorts of jobs we do, Jessica, — David Baldacci

Dark, cool, musty, smoky, where light fell funny and everyone looked like someone you knew or wanted to know. Or, more likely, wanted to forget. — 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

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

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

and ventured into countries where girls — David Baldacci

The girl had never ridden in a car before. She had probably never even seen a car, just the old trucks used at the camp. — David Baldacci

Between bites Jackson said, "So what's our next move?" Sawyer looked — 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

In his trip to Bethlehem Mark Twain had reported that all sects of Christians, except Protestants, had chapels under the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. However, he also observed that one group dared not trespass on the other's territory, proving beyond doubt, he noted, that even the grave of the Savior couldn't inspire peaceful worship among different beliefs. — David Baldacci

In this house, speaking and thinking — David Baldacci

The car had been returned to the impoundment lot where Luther had "borrowed" it earlier that night. The plate would get them nowhere, — David Baldacci

All you have to do [to win a Pulitzer Prize] is spend your life running from one awful place to another, write about every horrible thing you see. The civilized world reads about it, then forgets it, but pats you on the head for doing it and gives you a reward as appreciation for changing nothing. — 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

Answers to. Maybe the locals already had answers. He would take — David Baldacci

So the criminals win, that's what you're saying? For now they do. But it's a long game, Jamison. And I always play for the long game. — David Baldacci

And when they were elected, they arrived in Washington with absolutely no idea what to do. Their only goal had already been achieved: They had won their campaign. However, — David Baldacci

That's what civilization sometimes did to threats, real or perceived. They walled them off. Us against them. Survival of the fittest. You die so I can live. — David Baldacci

It's been 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. That's why trains are so popular at Christmas. People get on to meet their country over the holidays. They're looking for some friendship, a warm body to talk to. People don't rush on a train, because that's not what trains are for. How do you put a dollar value on that? What accounting line does that go on? — David Baldacci

Tyree explained, "This man attacked a guard barely — David Baldacci

Well, that dog was all Diamond had. When you love something, you can't just sit by and not do anything.'
'I suppose it may be God's way of telling us to love people while they're here, because tomorrow they may be gone. I guess that's a pretty sorry answer, but I'm afraid it's the only one I've got.'
'You're wise beyond your years. And what you say makes perfect sense. But I think when it comes to matters of the heart, perfect sense may be last thing you want to listen to.' - Cotton Longfellow — David Baldacci

It's not the beginning or the destination that counts. It's the ride in between. — David Baldacci

You know what kind of person it takes to run for President? Not normal. They could start out okay, but by the time they reach that level they've sold their soul to the devil so many times and stomped the guts out of enough people that they are definitely not like you and me, not even close. — David Baldacci

Screen. "Then get your gear and head out." When White looked back moments later, Puller — 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

tersely. Then the line — David Baldacci

He filled a bowl with cereal that looked like twigs a squirrel had pooped out. — 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

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

Room. It was four a.m. and he had not yet been to sleep. — David Baldacci

that were very familiar. He saw his father. — 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