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I had a teacher once, grade school somewhere. Philippines, I think, because she always wore a big white hat. So it was somewhere hot. I was always twice the size of the other kids, and she used to say to me: count to ten before you get mad, Reacher. And I've counted way past ten on this one. Way past.
Lee Child
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The guy that was standing said, "We don't want you here."
Reacher said, "You're confusing me with someone who gives a shit what you want."
"You won't get served in here."
"Won't I?"
"Not a hope."
"You could order for me."
"And then what?"
"Then I could eat your lunch."
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Sometimes if you want to know for sure whether the stove is hot, the only way to find out is to touch it.
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Printing currency for foreigners to buy is the best racket a government can get into.
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I'd never believed in luck. Never had any cause to. Never relied on it, because I never could.
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People who wear glasses, without them they always look unfocused, vulnerable. Out in the open. A layer removed.
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You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.
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Lone women shouldn't stop in the middle of nowhere for giant unkempt strangers with duct tape on their faces.
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I said nothing. I'm good at saying nothing. I don't like talking. I could go the rest of my life without saying another word, if I had to.
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Seven thirty-nine, more than three hundred miles to the north and east, Jack Reacher climbed out of his motel room window. One minute earlier, he had been in the bathroom, brushing his teeth. One minute before that, he had opened the door of his room to check the morning temperature. He had left it open, and the closet just inside the entrance passageway was faced with mirrored glass, and there was a shaving mirror in the bathroom on a cantilevered arm, and by a freak of optical chance he caught sight of four men getting out of a car and walking toward the motel office. Pure luck, but a guy as vigilant as Jack Reacher gets lucky more times than the average.
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They found out about him in July and stayed angry all through August. They tried to kill him in September. It was way too soon. They weren't ready. The attempt was a failure. It could have been a disaster, but it was actually a miracle. Because nobody noticed.
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The secret disadvantage that writers have is that writing takes away from reading time. So it's very appealing to me to say I'll take the evening off and read a book. I'll read absolutely anything.
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The world is the same jungle all over, but New York is its purest distillation. What is useful elsewhere is vital in the big city. You see four guys bunched on a corner waiting for you, you either run like hell in the opposite direction without hesitation, or you keep on walking without slowing down or speeding up or breaking stride. You look ahead with studied neutrality, you check their faces, you look away, like you're saying, Is that all you got?
Truth is, it's smarter to run. The best fight is the one you don't have. But I have never claimed to be smart. Just obstinate, and occasionally bad-tempered. Some guys kick cats. I keep walking.
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"Why not go live on the beach?"
"These things are a way of keeping score. I'm sure you have your own way of keeping score."
I nodded. "I compare the numbers of answers I get to the number of questions I ask."
"And how are you doing with that?"
"Lifetime average is close to a hundred per cent."
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People have their reasons for giving rides, all of them different. Maybe they hitched a lot when they were younger and now they're settled and comfortable they want to put back what they took out. Like a circular thing. Maybe they have charitable natures. Or maybe they're just lonely and want a little conversation.
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Plan A is to hitch a ride out of here. But if they want a war, then plan B is to win it.
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Elmore Leonard had rules. Made to be broken. "Never use an adverb." Never is an adverb! If you want to start with, "It was a dark and stormy night," go for it. I mean, suppose it really was a dark and stormy night? What are we supposed to do? Lie?
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Jack Reacher ordered espresso, double, no peel, no cube, foam cup, no china, and before it arrived at his table he saw a man's life change forever. Not that the waiter was slow. Just that the move was slick. So slick, Reacher had no idea what he was watching. It was just an urban scene, repeated everywhere in the world a billion times a day: A guy unlocked a car and got in and drove away. That was all. But that was enough.
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So he died, because for a split second he got brave. But not then. He died much later, after the split second of bravery had faded into long hours of wretched gasping fear, and after the long hours of fear had exploded into long minutes of insane screaming panic.
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People, Reacher was certain about. Dogs were different. People had freedom of choice. If a man or a woman ran snarling toward him, they did so because they chose to. They were asking for whatever they got. His response was their problem. But dogs were different. No free will. Easily misled. It raised an ethical problem. Shooting a dog because it had been induced to do something unwise was not the sort of thing Reacher wanted to do.
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Writing is not all that different from music. It has a time base, it has chronological development, it aims toward something in the same way that a piece of music does. A good piece of music untangles thoughts and points a direction for what I should write tomorrow.
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To fill a small bag means selecting, and choosing, and evaluating. There's no logicial end to that process. Pretty soon I would have a big bag, and then two or three. A month later I'd be like the rest of you.
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As serious as a heart attack. Maybe those were Ken Kramer's last words, like a final explosion of panic in his mind as he stopped breathing and dropped into the abyss. He was out of line, in every way there was, and he knew it. He was where he shouldn't have been, with someone he shouldn't have been with, carrying something he should have kept in a safer place. But he was getting away with it. He was playing and winning. He was on top of his game. He was probably smiling. Until the sudden thump deep inside his chest betrayed him. Then everything turned around. Success became instant catastrophe. He had no time to put anything right.
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The driver wanted Reacher more than he wanted an undamaged front bumper.
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I read my peers and contemporaries because at a certain level a book is almost a diary of how that person felt during that year. So I read all my friends to catch up on their news.
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Quote of the day
Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.
Martin Luther
Lee Child
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Born:
October 29, 1954
(age 69)
Bio:
Jim Grant, better known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British thriller writer. His first novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel.
Known for:
Persuader (2003)
Make Me (2015)
Killing Floor (1997)
One Shot (2005)
Never Go Back (2013)
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writing
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ten
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