Lee Child Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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I like to know things. I'm hungry for knowledge.

Lee Child
Spread love and understanding, Reacher said. Use force if necessary.

Lee Child
The driver wanted Reacher more than he wanted an undamaged front bumper.

Lee Child
I'm a rich man. To have everything you need is the definition of affluence.

Lee Child
I try not to look at my writing near bedtime, because it will fire my brain up.

Lee Child
Printing currency for foreigners to buy is the best racket a government can get into.

Lee Child
Plan A is to hitch a ride out of here. But if they want a war, then plan B is to win it.

Lee Child
No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.

Lee Child
I'd never believed in luck. Never had any cause to. Never relied on it, because I never could.

Lee Child
The first day is always the best, because you haven't screwed anything up yet. It's a gorgeous feeling.

Lee Child
Sometimes if you want to know for sure whether the stove is hot, the only way to find out is to touch it.

Lee Child
Lone women shouldn't stop in the middle of nowhere for giant unkempt strangers with duct tape on their faces.

Lee Child
Overwhelming force indiscriminately applied, not giving up on it well after he was sure no more was required.

Lee Child
I have to warn you. I promised my mother, a long time ago. She said I had to give folks a chance to walk away.

Lee Child
People who wear glasses, without them they always look unfocused, vulnerable. Out in the open. A layer removed.

Lee Child
Reacher said, "So here's the thing Brett. Either you take your hand off my chest, or I'll take it off your wrist.

Lee Child
The cop climbed out of his car exactly four minutes before he got shot. He moved like he knew his fate in advance.

Lee Child
You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.

Lee Child
That should be your town motto. It's all I ever hear. Like: New Hampshire, Live Free or Die. It should be: Despair, You Need To Leave Now.

Lee Child
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.

Lee Child
Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of telltale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers.

Lee Child
Reacher hated turning back. He liked to press on, dead ahead, whatever. Everyone's life needed an organizing principle, and relentless forward motion was Reacher's.

Lee Child
Here is the fundamental reality about the writing business. It's lonely. You spend all your time writing and then wondering whether what you just wrote is any good.

Lee Child
Remember, I'm not making this up. Reacher is real. He exists. This is what he is up to, right now. That's why I can't change anything — this is just the way it is.

Lee Child
Jack Reacher stayed alive, because he got cautious. He got cautious because he heard an echo from his past. He had a lot of past, and the echo was from the worst part of it.

Lee Child
The rhythm. It's got to be stumbly. It's tough guys talking. I have to get their vernacular. But, at the same time, it has to trip ahead. A tripping rhythm. Forward momentum.

Lee Child
The beginning of a new book feels like stepping off a cliff into the abyss. A long free-fall. One of these days I'm going to end up flat on my face. Or not, as the case may be.

Lee Child
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.

Lee Child
People say that knowledge is power. The more knowledge, the more power. Which makes you just about the most powerful person on earth. When it comes to killing people. And then getting away with it.

Lee Child
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.

Lee Child