Richard North Patterson Quotes & Sayings

There'll be people better and smarter than you, Adam. There always are. Your strength must be to want it more, and let nothing get in the way. They called Robert Kennedy ruthless. But for a few months before he died, when I joined his campaign, I knew Bobby very well, and I can tell you he was most ruthless with himself. That's how you should be. — Richard North Patterson

I was 29 when I wrote my first novel. But I was 45 when I quit for good. I was a 16-year overnight success. — Richard North Patterson

The rulings of the past do not always apply in the present. — Richard North Patterson

Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing. — Richard North Patterson

If someone really interests you, you'll learn about them yourself. — Richard North Patterson

The only judgment that truly matters is the final judgment. — Richard North Patterson

No one should be judged by the worst moment of his life. — Richard North Patterson

Religion also teaches kindness, personal responsibility, and the grace not to judge people by the worst moments in their lives. — Richard North Patterson

Who says they're all criminals? -he parried- some might actually be innocent. others may need someone to explain them. there are reasons why we become the way we are, which often aren't apparent on the surface of our lives — Richard North Patterson

Problem was that we could make things worse but we couldn't make anything better. — Richard North Patterson

Morally repugnant and tactically stupid are a lousy combination. — Richard North Patterson

The impostor syndrome. I know it well. Inside every self-assured professional lives a frightened neurotic who prays that he can somehow succeed before his clients discover the fraud. It's the guilty secret that drives us all. — Richard North Patterson

labeled, "high school for the rich and vapid." "'If you want a friend,' he admonished me, 'don't choose the insecure, the envious, or the needy. They're the ones who will sell you out. Those you can trust are confident and secure, men and women who like their lives, and don't have to meet their needs at your expense. So no gossips, back stabbers, or celebrity fuckers. No one who has to tell you who they know, what they own, how important they are, or whose self-concept depends on the acceptance of others. The only people who can truly care about you are those who are sufficient unto themselves. — Richard North Patterson

Chicago," Bright answered sardonically, "is not just a place. It's a state of mind. — Richard North Patterson

My life in politics has taught me that the only thing more difficult than fighting against our enemies is taking questions from my friends." Amid knowing chuckles, he promised, "Nonetheless, I shall do my best. — Richard North Patterson

Aggressiveness is good in a combat leader. Combining that with ambition and insecurity becomes more problematic. — Richard North Patterson

Write what you care about and understand. Writers should never try to outguess the marketplace in search of a salable idea; the simple truth is that all good books will eventually find a publisher if the writer tries hard enough, and a central secret to writing a good book is to write on that people like you will enjoy. — Richard North Patterson

The business of writing is empathising with situations that aren't your own. — Richard North Patterson

Whatever you do - his father continued - dream big, take risks, and work harder than whoever else is doing the same thing. Do you know why I've succeeded? not because of talent, I've known writers more gifted than I am. But I was driven to wring every molecule out of whatever talent I possessed. Success is not something you aspire to, you have to grab it by the throat. — Richard North Patterson

His legacy, if there is one, is that I try to do my best to see people whole, for who they are and what they've been through. especially those who matters to me — Richard North Patterson

Are you a consumer or producer? — Richard North Patterson

Before Bin Laden did everything but advertise. Yet he had to blow up the Twin Towers just to get the attention of anyone outside the intelligence community. So what did we do? We invaded the wrong country, killed the wrong madman, and too often used the wrong interrogation techniques on the wrong people-all because our leaders lost contact with the truth. — Richard North Patterson

The manuscript you submit [should not] contain any flaws that you can identify - it is up to the writer to do the work, rather than counting on some stranger in Manhattan to do it for him. — Richard North Patterson

Writing seems like the only job where what you think and feel really matters. — Richard North Patterson

Really? Paul Ryan truly prefers that a narcissistic, ignorant, ungovernable, unqualified, race-baiting, misogynistic moron becomes our next president? — Richard North Patterson

In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.'" He — Richard North Patterson

I have a life. A real one. And not all of it is with you. — Richard North Patterson

He knew that men were too complex to be defined by the worst moment in their lives — Richard North Patterson

Morning light through his windshield was pale and tired; the city had the desultory, cluttered look of a living room after a drunken party; Martin — Richard North Patterson