463 Quotes by Lee Child

I don't care about the little guy. I just hate the big guy. I hate big smug people who think they can get away with things.

Anecdotally his fitness reports rated him well above average in the classroom, excellent in the field, fluently bilingual in English and French, passable in Spanish, outstanding on all man-portable weaponry, and beyond outstanding at hand-to-hand combat. Susan knew what that last rating meant. Like having a running chainsaw thrown at you

Waiting is a skill like anything else.

Staring isn’t difficult. I can do it all day long. Without blinking, if I want to, which is sometimes painful, but always useful. The trick is to not really look at them, but to focus ten yards beyond, on nothing, which produces a glassy effect, which makes them worry, mostly about what’s going on behind your empty eyes.

Like when people say they slept like a baby. Do they mean they slept well? Or do they mean they woke up every ten minutes, screaming?

Imagine the uproar if the Federal government tried to make everyone wear a radio transmitter around their neck so we can keep track of their movements. But people happily carry their cell phones in their purses and pockets.

What don't you need to do?" she asked him. ... "You don't need to solve all the world's problems, Joe. Only some of them. There are enough to go around." ... "You've got the strength of two normal boys," she said. Then came my own personal question. "What are you going to do with this strength?" she asked me. I didn't answer. I never did. "You're going to do the right thing," she said.

It was an article of faith with NCOs [noncommissioned officers] that they were better than their officers. And they were usually right. Certainly I had been happy with mine. They had done plenty of good work for me.

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