Jeffery Deaver Quotes & Sayings

As I'd listened in on the conversation, I'd noted what seemed to be disappointment in Loving's voice. I wondered if that was due to his reluctance to cease playing this game with me personally. But that was perhaps projecting my feelings onto him. I — Jeffery Deaver

Even souvenir seekers. One of the worst contaminants was fellow officers, especially brass grandstanding if reporters were present and eager to grab a video bite to slap on the twenty-four-hour news cycle. One more glance at the circular coffin. Okay, Amelia Sachs thought: Knuckle time ... A phrase of her father's. The man had also been cop, a beat patrolman working the Deuce - Midtown South; back then Times Square was like Deadwood in the 1800s. "Knuckle time" referred to those moments when you have to go up against your worst fears. Breadbasket ... Sachs returned to the access door and climbed through it and down into the utility room below the cellar. Then she took the evidence collection gear bag from the other officer. Sachs said, "You search the basement, Jean?" "I'll do it now," Eagleston said. "And then get everything into the RRV." They'd done a fast examination of the cellar. But it was apparent that the perp had spent minimal time there. He'd grabbed Chloe, subdued — Jeffery Deaver

Always thinking. This was one of the reasons he loved her. — Jeffery Deaver

I think a lot of young aspiring writers get misdirected; they think 'I ought to write this, even though I enjoy reading that'. What you have to do is write what you enjoy reading. — Jeffery Deaver

The seat of power in the twenty-first century is information, not oil or geography. — Jeffery Deaver

Throat clutching from the outset! The Never List stands as a sterling example of psychological thriller writing at its best. Cancel appointments and give up on sleep. It's that kind of book. — Jeffery Deaver

Curiously, while drone operators are perhaps the safest of all combat troops physically, they have among the highest rates of depression and post-traumatic stress in the military and national security services. Sitting at a video console in Colorado or New York City, killing someone six thousand miles away and then collecting the kids at gymnastics or football practice, having dinner and sitting down to watch Dancing with the Stars in your suburban den was disorienting beyond belief. — Jeffery Deaver

Chris Teasley came on. She said, "Um, Agent Corte." "Officer Corte," I corrected. My organization is an office, not a bureau or an agency. When Congress gave Abe the money that's what he created. — Jeffery Deaver

I like watches from that era. Back then a watch was power. Not many people could afford one. The owner of a watch was a man who controlled time ... chains and fobs were invented so that even when a man carried a watch in his pocket, you could still see he owned one — Jeffery Deaver

The greatest single threat to an investigator is unfamiliarity with his environment. — Jeffery Deaver

We have years to converse with someone, to blurt and rant, to explain our desires and anger and regrets - and oh how we squander those moments. — Jeffery Deaver

Readers are paramount. I live to write books for them. — Jeffery Deaver

In the shaded portions where the two spheres of different lives meet, certain fundamentals- moods, loves, fears, angers- can't be hidden. That's the contract. — Jeffery Deaver

Yield and you need not break. Bent, you can straighten. Emptied, you can hold. Torn, you can mend. — Jeffery Deaver

As a matter of fact, yeah, they were foolproof. The problem is that you don't have to protect yourself against fools. You have to protect yourself against people like me. — Jeffery Deaver

In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures. — Jeffery Deaver

Family is about love and affection but about friction and separation, too. Yet, with work and luck, the distances - geographic and emotional - can be shrunk, even made to vanish. — Jeffery Deaver

I've always written, all my life, and when I was very young I developed an interest in poetry. — Jeffery Deaver

And if it took awhile, that means she was in pain for a long time. — Jeffery Deaver

The best part about Omar was that he wasn't simply a decoy. Surrounding the robot was a grid of ultraviolet and microwave beams. When Loving or his partner, presumably from some distance, took up position and fired the typical three-burst round into Omar's head, empty and inexpensively replaceable, a computer would instantly correlate trajectory, speed and GPS coordinates and indicate on our handhelds where the shooter was, down to three feet. Would — Jeffery Deaver

The recent fascination, I think, reflects the shift in approach by law enforcement officials to embrace technology as wholeheartedly as the rest of the world. — Jeffery Deaver

We don't have enough time to move fast — Jeffery Deaver

A few were journalists and one a novelist, who wanted to get it right. (Rhyme welcomed his presence; he himself was the subject of a series of novels based on cases he'd run and had written the author on several occasions about misrepresentations of real crime scene work. "Must you sensationalize?") — Jeffery Deaver

I'm not your proverbial worst nightmare because nightmares aren't real and I am more real than anybody wants to admit. — Jeffery Deaver

In a matter-of-fact voice, she said to me, "Have you found out anything more than that?" She glanced toward the documents, which said nothing directly about her job. "Only that you were with the Sickle project. My associate's good but she couldn't get much more than that. Your archives're locked pretty tight. As for active files - if the group is still active . . ." She said nothing. "If it's still active, she didn't find anything on record." Though the nickname of the group was anglicized to the name of the farm implement, in fact it came from the Israeli Defense Force's name for assassination - in Hebrew, sikul memukad, which means "focused foiling. — Jeffery Deaver

Robert Rotenberg does for Toronto what Ian Rankin does for Edinburgh. — Jeffery Deaver

Sometimes you can't be what you ought to be, you can't have what you ought to have. — Jeffery Deaver

God don't give out certain. — Jeffery Deaver

But, I added, duBois had found no evidence of any malfeasance. She'd spoken to dozens of officers and administrators within the department, armed with her pen and calculator. What Westerfield and Teasley had found, the money shifting from one account to another, seemed to duBois to be innocent. — Jeffery Deaver

Breathtakingly real and utterly compelling, Immoral dishes up page-turning psychological suspense while treating us lucky readers to some of the most literate and stylish writing you'll find anywhere today. — Jeffery Deaver

And life changes. Maybe just a little, maybe a lot. And at some point, it just isn't worth the fight to fix it. — Jeffery Deaver

Of course, I write crime stories, and I have to describe violence and the aftermath of violence. — Jeffery Deaver

People with children and people with their own business always pick up a ringing phone. — Jeffery Deaver

But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet. — Jeffery Deaver

I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block. — Jeffery Deaver

Ideally, I like to integrate the human issues into the suspense story itself. — Jeffery Deaver

You put a certain amount of effort into stitching a jacket or dress and you get the garment you expect. There's no mystery. But you put a thousand times more effort into raising your child and the result is the opposite of what you hope and dream for. This seemed so unfair. — Jeffery Deaver

You bet they did. Dellray was there. You should've seen him. He ordered every other case put on hold and said if metallurgy report wasn't in your hands ASAP there'd be one mean mother - you get the picture - reaming their - you get the rest of the picture. — Jeffery Deaver

Inspiring isn't the same as plotting. — Jeffery Deaver

Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories. — Jeffery Deaver

as old as we may be in flesh, we are always young in the bone — Jeffery Deaver

His rules were unencumbered by my constraints - the Constitution and the laws promulgated thereunder. Still, — Jeffery Deaver

In general, I think, less is more, and that if a reader stops reading because a book is too icky then I've failed in my obligation to the readers. — Jeffery Deaver

I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper. — Jeffery Deaver

Hardcover books are fairly expensive these days and to read one requires a significant commitment of time in our busy society. So I want to make sure that when readers buy one of my books they get something they're familiar with. — Jeffery Deaver

I needed somebody without any preconceived ideas. But I also needed somebody with a mind of her own." The contradictory qualities we seek in that elusive perfect lover. Strength and vulnerability, in equal measures. — Jeffery Deaver

The human creature is so astonishing, but count on it before anything else to be just that-a creature. A laughing animal, a dangerous one, a clever one, a scared one, but always acting for a reason-a motive that will move the beast towards its desires. — Jeffery Deaver

I spend about eight months researching and outlining my book. — Jeffery Deaver

We have to assume Loving's found your account. If you read messages or send any, it's possible for him to correlate time with router and server traffic in the area here. — Jeffery Deaver

This only is denied the Gods: the power to remake the past. - ARISTOTLE — Jeffery Deaver

It's becoming apparent that I like bad boys. That's one of my problems. They've all been bad boys. You're one too. You're a bad boy. But, I think you're a good bad boy. — Jeffery Deaver

I like the way words go together and I like the gamesmanship of writing poetry. It is such a challenge. — Jeffery Deaver

I spend eight months outlining and researching the novel before I begin to write a single word of the prose. — Jeffery Deaver

A young officer in my organization, Lyle Ahmad, was a solid, olive-skinned former marine with a trim crew cut. He was a clone, a close protection officer. I had met Ahmad when he was a marine guarding the U.S. embassy in Warsaw and I was an agent with the State Department's protection and investigation arm, Diplomatic Security, where I worked before joining my present outfit. He was quiet and sharp and boasted impressive multiple-language skills. He was a rising star in our organization. Driving — Jeffery Deaver

The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part. — Jeffery Deaver

I'm thinking about it," she mused, almost to herself. "The building burned. . . . There was a DNA match. I recall the report. There were some typos in it, remember?" Claire duBois was older than her adolescent intonation suggested, though not much. Short brunette hair, a heart-shaped and delicately pretty face, a figure that was probably very nice - and I was as curious about it as any man would be - but usually hidden by functional pantsuits, which I preferred her wearing over skirts — Jeffery Deaver

Down to Gehenna or up to the throne, / He who travels fastest who travels alone... — Jeffery Deaver

The workbench was filled with glassware, books, syringes, tattooing machine parts, plastic bags, tools. Dozens of books on toxins and thousands of downloaded Internet documents, — Jeffery Deaver

That's the past for you. Not only does it come back at the most unexpected, and inconvenient, times but it's set in stone. — Jeffery Deaver

The pain, you know. It's one hell of a way to die. — Jeffery Deaver

WHEN YOU MOVE THEY CAN'T GETCHA 'A — Jeffery Deaver

Every case I worked is closed. All the principals were either abducted and resettled . . . or zeroed," she said, using a verb that I'd heard from time to time if my principal was in a similar line of work. It had become popular among the Mossad. They liked to use shorthand they thought was American. Zero — Jeffery Deaver

She was reflecting back on a truth she had learned over the years: that people heard what they wanted to hear, saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted. — Jeffery Deaver

Calm, Corte. Whatever happens you have to stay calm. When you look into your opponent's face, when you talk to him, it should be like you're discussing cornflakes. Never more emotional than that. . . . Emotion's deadly. What — Jeffery Deaver

The easy answer is that writing novels is a lot more fun than practicing law. — Jeffery Deaver

You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher. — Jeffery Deaver

eager' and 'anxious' aren't the same, or how 'disinterested' doesn't mean 'uninterested. — Jeffery Deaver

In my twenties I was in Austin, Texas, finishing up yet another degree. I'd always loved hiking and, sick of the sedentary life of academia, I'd joined the orienteering club at the university. The sport, which originated in Sweden, is a competition in which you use a special map and a compass to navigate through wilderness you've never seen before, stopping at checkpoints to have a control card physically or electronically stamped. The first competitor to hit the "double circle" - the end of the route on the orienteering map - is the winner. I — Jeffery Deaver

Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming. — Jeffery Deaver

I said evenly, "Loving's low-tech. Usually he uses sandpaper and alcohol on sensitive parts of the body. Doesn't sound too bad but it works real well." I — Jeffery Deaver

Criminalistics doesn't exist in a vacuum. The more you know about your environment, the better you can apply- (This quote was never completed in the book because Rhyme stopped abruptly at the end of it. I really wish he had finished his thought.) — Jeffery Deaver

little too undistinguished, a little — Jeffery Deaver

But then someday the truth would come out. It always did. Repress what you will, someday the truth comes out. — Jeffery Deaver

Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories. — Jeffery Deaver

was mildly surprised to see) and in the smallest — Jeffery Deaver

didn't seem to be the nickname sort. Beautiful people rarely were. 'Let's — Jeffery Deaver

Too much screaming in Congress. Too much screaming everywhere. — Jeffery Deaver

Love, son, is not manifest in the gift of gadgets or coddling foods or rooms of one's own. Love shows itself in discipline and example and sacrifice - even giving up one's life. — Jeffery Deaver

What'd he do? Your stepfather? — Jeffery Deaver

People want to avoid the past. I suppose that's natural. When we tally up all we've said and done over the years, despite the wonderful memories, the regrets may be fewer but stand out more prominently, glowing coals that we can never quite extinguish, try though we might — Jeffery Deaver

It means working harder to do the research but I don't really mind - I don't think I have what it takes to chase criminals through back alleys and wade through blood at crime scenes. — Jeffery Deaver

I liked old time music but what i meant by that was the period from the 1930s through the 60s, nothing before and little after.
Performers like fats waller, Sinatra, billie holiday, louis armstrong, rosemary clooney, ella, sammy Davis Jr, dean martin ... If the lyrics weren't stupid. Words were important. — Jeffery Deaver

When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level. — Jeffery Deaver

Somebody you busted?" Amanda asked matter-of-factly. — Jeffery Deaver

Islands - of times when you're content, you don't think about the loss. Now it's like your world's underwater. All of it. But the water goes down and the islands come up. The water'll be there always but you'll find dry land — Jeffery Deaver

I always carried in my breast or hip pocket a video camera disguised as a pen. It was linked to software whose algorithms alerted me that the body language of a person approaching was consistent with that of an impending attack. I also used it to record crowds in public when I was transporting principals, to see if faces of passersby in one locale turn up in another. A — Jeffery Deaver

William Gibson's novel Neuromancer, — Jeffery Deaver

You see tumbleweeds? You see cowpokes? Indians? This isn't the streets of Laredo. — Jeffery Deaver

Hollow then produced Kobel's tax returns for the past three years.
When Ringling objected, Hollow said to Judge Rollins, "Your Honor, a man who files a tax return is of sound mind."
"That's debatable," said the ultraconservative judge, drawing laughter from the courtroom. — Jeffery Deaver

Playing chess or Go or Tigris and Euphrates - a very good game, by the way - I can watch people as they choose their strategy and note how they respond to something I've done. Even — Jeffery Deaver

Generally my typical books have lots of twists and turns a big surprise ending and then usually another surprise at the end and ideally, as in Garden of Beasts, we get to the very end and we find at the last few pages that there's yet another surprise. — Jeffery Deaver

My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about. — Jeffery Deaver

The creatures I had seen were not men, had never been men. They were animals - humanised animals - triumphs of vivisection. — Jeffery Deaver

They look like wounds, not tattoos. — Jeffery Deaver

When it comes time to write the book itself I'll shut the lights out, picture the scene I'm about to write then close my eyes and go at it. Yes, I can touch type. — Jeffery Deaver

I write pretty much anywhere - on planes, in hotel rooms, anywhere in my house. — Jeffery Deaver

Rule one: Write about settings you're familiar with. — Jeffery Deaver

Pulaski said, "Even psycho killers need to do home repairs. Probably it's not related to the case. — Jeffery Deaver

Predate your telling me, T.T. — Jeffery Deaver

Time transcends morality — Jeffery Deaver