Vachss Andrew Quotes & Sayings

I don't understand people whose gratification is a BMW. You don't know what joy is until you see a kid who was tortured get adopted by a family. — Andrew Vachss

Be he the first to stand or the last, a man must stand," the father had told his adoring son. "And if there is only one man, then that man must stand alone." ~Thomas to Bruce Wayne — Andrew Vachss

We don't protect our young, and we tolerate predators of our own species. — Andrew Vachss

It's the family you choose that counts. — Andrew Vachss

Andrew Vachss, the best noir-ey writer in the history of the genre, called cats the lap dancers of the animal world. Give them attention, they're there. Stop, they're outta there. — MaryJanice Davidson

I wanted to ask her what the fuck was wrong but I had a date with a pack of skittish whores. — Andrew Vachss

The third person narrator, instead of being omniscient, is like a constantly running surveillance tape. — Andrew Vachss

I did criminal defense work part-time, and that paid the bills for representing abused and neglected children ... and for defending in juvenile court those kids the 'child protective system' had missed when it had the chance. — Andrew Vachss

That's Manhattan today - all the money goes up top, while the infrastructure wastes away from neglect. The famous skyline is a cheap trick now, a sleight-of-hand to draw your eye from the truth, as illusory as a bodybuilder with osteoporosis. — Andrew Vachss

Ask any experienced defense lawyer: the real risks are for an accused person who is innocent. A guilty defendant has many more options available. — Andrew Vachss

Crime takes the pulse of a culture. It tells us the truth about us as a species. — Andrew Vachss

When you hunt predators, the best camouflage is weakness. — Andrew Vachss

Life is a fight, but not everyone's a fighter. Otherwise, bullies would be an endangered species. — Andrew Vachss

I write everything in Courier 12 because I write for publication, not pleasure. — Andrew Vachss

If love would die along with death, this life wouldn't be so hard. — Andrew Vachss

I hate bullies. I hate them. I'm not good enough with words to describe how much I hate them. — Andrew Vachss

Children know the truth: love is not an emotion, love is behavior. — Andrew Vachss

No politician is threatened by the child protective constituency, because it does not exist. — Andrew Vachss

Even if sheep could talk, they'd never ask questions. — Andrew Vachss

Perfection cannot be achieved by men," he told me. "Our highest calling is the pursuit of perfection. My haiku will be finished when I die, but it will never be perfect. — Andrew Vachss

Two rules: You enter without breaking. And you remember that nobody misses what you don't take. — Andrew Vachss

People who don't have much get ugly about giving up the little they have left. — Andrew Vachss

Pervasive abuse and neglect of children is a greater danger to our species than cocaine and Communism combined. — Andrew Vachss

A kid in an abusive home has far fewer rights than any POW. There is no Geneva Convention for kids. — Andrew Vachss

I think people should be consumers of journalism. — Andrew Vachss

You want proof evolution is for real, don't waste your time with fossils; just check out the New York City rat. They started out as immigrants, stowaways in some ship's cargo hold. Only the survivors got to breed, and they've been improving with every new
litter. Smarter, faster, stronger. Getting ready to rule. Manhattan wouldn't be the first island they took over. — Andrew Vachss

I don't sign contracts for my books. — Andrew Vachss

If a train is coming at you, closing your eyes won't save you ... but if you look right at it, you at least have a chance to jump. — Andrew Vachss

I don't take advances for my books. — Andrew Vachss

A free press doesn't mean it's not a tame press. — Andrew Vachss

Fear is an enemy that can be killed only at close range. The closest range of all is intimacy. The deeper the fear is embedded in one's spirit, the more vulnerable it is. — Andrew Vachss

All children are born pure egoists. They perceive their needs to the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied. — Andrew Vachss

The idea that you're not a writer until you're published is a lie. — Andrew Vachss

My stuff isn't for everyone. — Andrew Vachss

Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change. — Andrew Vachss

The worst place to be is in the middle. When elephants fight, the grass
gets trampled. — Andrew Vachss

It isn't much use writing slogans on a wall if you plan to total the building. — Andrew Vachss

People won't let you live the way you want to, but if you're strong enough or quick enough, at least you don't have to live the way they want you to. — Andrew Vachss

I want to disabuse people of the idea that knowledge is power. Knowing how to get to Detroit is not the same thing as having the bus fare. — Andrew Vachss

A dog is like a person - he needs a job and a family to be what he's meant to be. — Andrew Vachss

The biggest threat to children is always inside their houses. The predator with the ski-mask who grabs the kid out of a van, while a real thing, is a tiny percentage of those who prey upon children. Most victimization of children is within the Circle of Trust - not necessarily a parent, but somebody who was let into that circle, who can be a counselor, or a coach, or someone at a day-care center.
The biggest danger to children is that they're perceived as property, not human beings. — Andrew Vachss

The more bullets flying, the less accurate each individual slug has to be. — Andrew Vachss

A trial is not a search for truth. It is a contest and, often, one that produces no winners. — Andrew Vachss

I'm in pursuit of what cannot be achieved: perfection. — Andrew Vachss

Roots are nice, but a tree can't run. — Andrew Vachss

Chronic sexual predators [to Vachss, pedophiles] have crossed an osmotic membrane. They can't step back to the other side - our side. And they don't want to. If we don't kill them or release them, we have but one choice. Call them monsters and isolate them ... I've spoken to many predators over the years. They always exhibit amazement that we do not hunt them. And that when we capture them, we eventually let them go. Our attitude is a deliberate interference with Darwinism - an endangerment of our species. — Andrew Vachss

I don't even use italics or boldface; that's clutter, not clarity. Fancy fonts are fine for blogs, just as calligraphy is fine for diaries. But when you're writing for anyone other than yourself, you want to get as universal as possible. — Andrew Vachss

The Humane Society of America thinks Michael Vick should have a dog. I think whoever's in charge there should have a lobotomy. — Andrew Vachss

He said when the Lord made people He made them all the same for starters. But life marks people. If you know the way, you can read them like maps. — Andrew Vachss

Lawyers for abused kids can challenge bad agency decisions because they can always bring a lawsuit. A volunteer cannot.#barahona — Andrew Vachss

Stealing to eat ain't criminal - stealing to be rich is. — Andrew Vachss

He had the radio turned to some Spanish-language station at a volume that reminded me of the holding tank at Riker's Island - and for an added touch of authenticity he screamed 'Maricon!' and waved his fist out the open window at another driver who had the audacity to attempt to share the road with us. — Andrew Vachss

The ferret, hunting,
eyes on the ground,
never hears footsteps
of the hawk — Andrew Vachss

Ours is a country where anything can be accomplished if enough people get angry ... because, in America, we act on our collective anger. — Andrew Vachss

Victimizers of children are the enemies of any so-called society. — Andrew Vachss

In my world, people are always plotting. You
have no idea of all the crimes people in business commit every
day. Like it was nothing. Or there's a set of special rules for them.
Remember when Bush made that whole speech about 'corporate
ethics' last year? What a fraud. You think stuff like Enron or
WorldCom is an aberration? It's only the tip. Business is a religion.
Probably the only one practiced all over the world. — Andrew Vachss

[I] settled down with the Daily News and the Post, glad to be back with journalism where all murders are "brutal," all prosecutors are "tough," and all blondes are
"attractive." And any lawyer who cooperates with the reporter is
"high-powered. — Andrew Vachss

A couple of buffoons were running for some state-senate seat just vacated by the incumbent's prison term. One accused the other of being "against the Internet" - a knockout punch in a world where whole hordes of humans think better sex is a faster modem. — Andrew Vachss

I didn't start out angry. I started out a young man wanting adventure. — Andrew Vachss

Anyone who says, 'Books don't change anything,' or - more commonly - that crime fiction is the wrong genre for promoting social change - should take a closer look. — Andrew Vachss

Building a mechanical device for its appearance is like putting lace on a bowling ball. — Andrew Vachss

Without question, I've either got to be a writer, or I fail. — Andrew Vachss

Max Allan Collins blends fact and fiction like no other writer. — Andrew Vachss

The Bowery station on the J line is what happens to a neighborhood once politicians realize the people who live there don't vote. — Andrew Vachss

Cats are the lap-dancers of the animal world. Soon as you stop shelling out, they move on, find another lap. They're furry little sociopaths. Pretty and slick
in love with themselves. When's the last time you saw a seeing-eye cat? — Andrew Vachss

Max can't hear or speak, but he communicates okay. He wasn't programmed for fear - whoever rolled the genetic dice left that out too. If Mama asked Max to deliver a package to the Devil, Max would go straight to Hell. Unlike others of my acquaintance who had made that particular trip, I had complete confidence that Max would come back. Max the Silent is one tough boy. In fact, he's so infamous that one time over in night court when he was being arraigned for attempted murder, nobody even laughed when the judge told him that he had the right to remain silent. They all knew that Max never attempted to murder anyone. — Andrew Vachss

Courier 12 is the Type-O blood of fonts - works just as good for a 'N.Y. Times' op-ed as a screenplay or a short story. — Andrew Vachss

The first thing any charlatan needs is nomenclature. A special language. Trappings. That's the true genesis of psychobabble terms such as 'disclosure' and 'in denial.' Every good con man needs plausibility ... — Andrew Vachss

The goal of a true family is not that their children follow in their footsteps, but that their children surpass them in all ways. — Andrew Vachss

If I ever stopped being angry, I couldn't write anymore. How could I? — Andrew Vachss

While early childhood experiences may impel, they do not compel. In the end, evil is a matter of choice. — Andrew Vachss

Family' is not just a biological word, it's an an operative one. — Andrew Vachss

In some neighborhoods, if you want to walk down the streets, you've got two choices - look down, or look hard. — Andrew Vachss

Most investigators don't even know what the word means. You stop the cops from using informants and the only crimes they'd ever solve would be those by deranged postal workers who come to work once too often. — Andrew Vachss

I have learned that a man who counts himself a shepherd is not worthy to be a member of a flock. — Andrew Vachss

Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist. — Andrew Vachss

Information is the hardest currency. — Andrew Vachss

People are pushing against the fabric of society all the time. — Andrew Vachss

Some people have a personality disorder where they just have to go against the herd, right or wrong. They're so committed to their own lone-wolf image that ... Well, put it this way: if the others suddenly came over to their side, they'd switch sides. — Andrew Vachss

Evil is a matter of choice. Those people who have been victimized and refuse to imitate their oppressors are in my mind the greatest heroes we have. — Andrew Vachss

I believe my publisher has shown a great deal of faith in me over a lot of years but I'm not prepared to be so arrogant to say that the long-term literary value of my work would compensate them for a financial failure. — Andrew Vachss

Take some pleasure from telling him no. My guess was that she worked for the landlord, not — Andrew Vachss

A moral society will not set standards for becoming a parent, but it will establish irreducible minimums for maintaining that sacred status. — Andrew Vachss

Camouflage doesn't help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle. — Andrew Vachss

Fighting means you could lose. Bullying means you can't. A bully wants to beat somebody; he doesn't want to fight somebody. — Andrew Vachss

There is no Constitutional right to prey on others. The Internet is just a piece of technology, like the telephone. Society has the right to modify its uses. — Andrew Vachss

My life is triage. — Andrew Vachss

From the very second that two people sat together around a fire in the forest, there was another human out there who felt better in the dark. — Andrew Vachss