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

Some things never change," said Abby wearily. "Boys never grow up, they just get bigger with more hair and people start calling them men. — David Baldacci

I'm tired of people screaming about price and forgetting about the content. — David Baldacci

That's because superstition has it that the first person who gets up from a party of thirteen will die?"
"Precisely. I believe Agatha Christie even wrote a mystery about it. — David Baldacci

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

more. Lee had done this so many times that he could have closed his eyes and his fingers would carry on, manipulating his tools of felony with enviable precision. Lee had already — David Baldacci

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

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

Success or failure was always defined largely during the preparation. With good planning all one had to do was execute. Even last-second changes could be made with greater ease if the planning in the first place had been precise. — David Baldacci

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

the poppy crop is the only thing keeping the economy going. And if we don't buy it terrorists will and use the enormous profits from dealing the drugs to attack us. Lesser of two evils; sometimes it's the only choice we have." "It's still wrong," Michelle persisted. "And what Valerie did was criminal." "Valerie was a rogue clear and simple. As crazy as it sounds I believe she was going to kill you both after the torture was done, and she probably believed she'd get away with it. The role of the — David Baldacci

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

He spent the next two days in careful, decisive preparation efficiently conducted around his day job. The three imperatives of his mission were embedded in every action he performed: (1) keep it simple; (2) provide for every contingency; and (3) never panic no matter how much your plan goes awry, which it occasionally did. However, if there were a fourth rule, it would have to be: exploit the fact that most people are fools when it comes to things that actually matter, like their own survival. He had never suffered from that shortcoming. — David Baldacci

People have given me classified information, but always with the disclaimer 'This can never end up in a book.' And it never does. — 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

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

A young man's ambition, can there be a more fleeting prospect? — David Baldacci

were rabid, foaming bats blindly cleaving the air around his head. And it seemed that every few steps he would run straight into a twister of mosquitoes. Though he had been paid a large amount of cash up front, he was seriously considering increasing his daily fee on this one. — David Baldacci

The truth always matters, — David Baldacci

But protagonists are protagonists and heroes are heroes. — David Baldacci

far less than one block in Brooklyn. — David Baldacci

He rose, placed another small log on the fire, sat back down in his armchair, and opened his book.
"What are you reading?" Reggie asked.
"On a wild night like this? Agatha Christie, of course. I still feel compelled to see if Hercule Poirot's 'little gray cells' will do their job one more time. It seems to often inspire my own brain, however inferior it might be to the diminutive Belgian's. — David Baldacci

Alex said, "Okay, I need to know something. Why the Camel Club?"
Stone answered, "Because camels have great stamina. They never give up."
"That's what Oliver says, but the real reason is this," Reuben countered. "In the 1920s there was another Camel Club. And at each meeting of that club they would all raise their glasses and take a vow to oppose Prohibition to the last drop of whiskey. Now, that's my kind of club. — David Baldacci

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

I can write with a crying child on my lap. I have. Often. — David Baldacci

They made you hate everyone, even the ones who were like you. That is what they do, so the prisoners will not rise up against them. — David Baldacci

We build walls because we are afraid. We do not like change. We do not like it when others who do not look or think like us come along and try and change things. Thus we run from it. Or, even worse, attack it. — David Baldacci

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

I was always unfailingly polite to Ladon-Tosh. I didn't care if he never looked at me or spoke to me. I just wanted him to know that he had a friend in me. — David Baldacci

Few governmental institutions are more misunderstood and feared out of ignorance than the Federal Reserve Board. — David Baldacci

There's one key difference between the Olympics and combat, Susan. You might have overlooked it." He paused. "In the Olympics, no one is shooting back at you. — David Baldacci

intel and no one gave it a second thought. — David Baldacci

her with him she was likely going to — David Baldacci

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

He slipped on the floor and this time his — David Baldacci

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

She apparently didn't expect any trouble but she also never expected everything to go perfectly either. That was a good rule to live by Robie knew. Because perfection was rarely the case in the field. — David Baldacci

Both because of the cold and also to help hide his face. — 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

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

Someone like you could be so, how do you say, fortunate, said Bok. — 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

Scene upstairs with — 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

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

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

tightly and a vein throbbed at his temple. The two guards led Rogers down a long hallway. On each side were barred cell doors. The men behind them had been talking, but when Rogers came into view they abruptly stopped. The prisoners — David Baldacci

Passion is a rare commodity. When you find it, treasure it and never give it up! — David Baldacci

That's how they generated Bruno's — David Baldacci

Ordinarily Robie would police his brass. But he was chambering dum-dum rounds tonight, so most likely they would stay inside her. — 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

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. — Nelson DeMille

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

Preferred entering through the front. — 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

In fact, something always leads to something else. — David Baldacci

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

Every time I walk with Alex I'm reminded both how lucky I am to have friends like him and also how unworthy I am to have friends like him. - Oliver Stone — David Baldacci

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

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE DAN KIRKSEN OPENED THE WASHINGTON POST AND started to take a sip of his orange juice. It never reached his mouth. Gavin had managed to file a story on the Sullivan case consisting chiefly of the information that Jack Graham, newly ordained partner at Patton, — 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

Robie slept soundly after killing five men. — David Baldacci

Room peering out, a gun in one hand, his other hand curled around the window drape. "Dad?" said Tyler in a shaky voice. Wingo held up a hand to quiet his son. He lingered at the window for a few more minutes, his gaze running up and down the streets, to the tops of the buildings and — 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

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

This message was repeated down the line until it was ringing in every guard's ears. Shots fired and nobody knew from where or by whom. And since none of the guards had guns, that meant one of the prisoners must. Maybe more than one. Now things, already serious, morphed — David Baldacci

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

and ventured into countries where girls — David Baldacci

And he goes round with a fat roll of dollar bills, and got this nice farm, and all them fancy machines, and man let his family starve.' - Louisa Mae Cardinal — 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

Most folks here got rules 'bout trespassing. Warning shot's fired right close to the head. Get they's attention. Next shot gets a lot more personal. Now I'm too old to waste time firing a warning shot ... — David Baldacci

Most people associate reading with laying on the beach. They don't see that it's crucial for a democracy! — David Baldacci

When the Fed raises or lowers interest rates, for instance, then that affects the entire economy. Contracts or expands it. — 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

The spokeswoman said, The victims, a mother and her young son, have been identified, but we're withholding their — David Baldacci

The police, he knew, had already copied the — 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

Growing old is so darn unappealing until you consider the alternative. — David Baldacci

Planning something never seems risky. It's in the execution where all the risk comes." "And — David Baldacci

People like to talk about other people's misery; it makes them feel their own life is somehow better when it usually isn't. — 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

Reacher got to them on the plane. He put them out of action and stole their wallets." "On the plane?" "He broke Lozano's fingers and Baldacci's arms and no one noticed." "That's not possible." "Apparently it is. One against two, on an airplane, with a hundred witnesses. It's a blatant humiliation. And now he's renting cars on our dime? Who does this guy think he is? — Lee Child

I'm a wicked ping-pong player. — 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

Life was not fair. If you wanted something you had to take it. Before someone else took it from you. Neatly dissected down to its essence, life was one long series of lily pad hoppings. The quick and the resourceful were able to adapt and survive; all others were simply crushed as a more nimble creature landed on the lily pad they had occupied for too long. — 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

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

Today might not be so good. But tomorrow, you got another chance to get it right. — David Baldacci

The report helpfully provided that Quakers are a religious group that pride themselves on their nonviolent beliefs. That was a stupid principle on which to found a religion, Chung-Cha thought. One could not rule out violence, because violence was often necessary. And since other religions routinely employed violence, those that did not were in constant danger of being rendered extinct. — David Baldacci

Kennedy's guy had never been the same. Quit the Service, divorced, finished his human existence in obscurity in some rat's hole in Mississippi, — 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

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

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

goes to the cottage. They may place her in Witness Protection without warning, — David Baldacci