Lee Child
L.A. has a fantastic car scene and because the climate is so gentle, cars can last forever.Collection: Car
It's always sad if anybody you know has a personal problem.Collection: Sad
I do a little fact checking now and then. Other than that its impact is simply that email has revolutionized communication for me, and my website has built up a community of readers, which is a lot of fun.Collection: Communication
Hope for the best, plan for the worst.Collection: Hoping For The Best
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.Collection: Phones
Don't be sad that roses have thorns. Be glad that thorns have Roses. Today's the day I worried about yesterday and it didn't happen.Collection: Yesterday
The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.Collection: Writing
Spread love and understanding,” Reacher said. “Use force if necessary.Collection: Understanding
A person less fortunate than yourself deserves the best you can give. Because of duty, and honor, and service. You understand those words? You should do your job right, and you should do it well, simply because you can, without looking for notice or reward.Collection: Jobs
Don't get it right - get it WRITTEN!Collection: Written
Some old guy once said that the meaning of life is that it ends.Collection: Guy
Writing is showbusiness for shy people. That's how I see it.Collection: Writing
You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.Collection: Fear
No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Hate
I'm a rich man. To have everything you need is the definition of affluence.Collection: Men
Sometimes if you want to know for sure whether the stove is hot, the only way to find out is to touch it.Collection: Hot
Evaluate. Long experience had taught me to evaluate and assess. When the unexpected gets dumped on you, don’t waste time. Don’t figure out how or why it happened. Don’t recriminate. Don’t figure out whose fault it is. Don’t work out how to avoid the same mistake next time. All of that you do later. If you survive.Collection: Mistake
It's a kind of zen question: if you write a book and no one reads it, is it really a book?Collection: Book
I always wanted to be in the world of entertainment. I just love the idea of an audience being happy with what I am doing. Writing is showbusiness for shy people. That's how I see it.Collection: Writing
I don't want to put the world to rights... I just don't like people who put the world to wrongs.Collection: Rights
British crime stories tend to be very internal, psychological, claustrophobic, very limited in terms of geography.Collection: Stories
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.Collection: Mother
So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job.Collection: Jobs
Many years from now when your children ask what New York City was like just after 9/11, this will be the book you give them in response. It's an exquisite novel full of heart, soul, passion and intelligence, and it's the one this great New York author was born to write.Collection: New York
The third guy was different. He was what you got when you ate squirrels for four generations. Smarter than a rat and tougher than a goat, and jumpier than either one.Collection: Squirrels
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.Collection: Talking
Hit them fast, hit them hard, and hit them a lot.Collection: Hard
The first day of the rest of my life.Collection: Good Morning
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.Collection: Dog
People spend thousands of dollars on stereos. Sometimes tens of thousands. There is a specialist industry right here in the States which builds stereo gear to a standard you wouldn't believe. Tubed amplifiers which cost more than a house. Speakers taller than me. Cables thicker than a garden hose. Some army guys had that stuff. I'd heard it on bases around the world. Wonderful. But they were wasting their money. Because the best stereo in the world is free. Inside your head. It sounds as good as you want it to. As loud as you want it to be.Collection: Believe
I need a stimulating environment to write because my books are driven at 100 miles per hour at a time.Collection: Book
The most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.Collection: Imagination
For men, as they get bogged down with responsibilities, commitments, bureaucracy, it is a fantasy just to think of shedding everything literally, walking away with nothing at all, and just hitting the road.Collection: Commitment
I have the "thing" worked out - the trick or the surprise or the pivotal fact. Then I just start somewhere and let the story work itself out.Collection: Stories
I just felt from personal observation that there is nothing more dislocated or alienated than a lifelong military person trying to cope in civilian life. It's like two completely separate planets.Collection: Military
Intensely vivid characters, terrible crimes, and a brutal deep-frozen landscape all prove beyond a reasonable doubt that cold nurtures good and evil as readily as heat ... and that Giles Blunt is a really tremendous crime novelist.Collection: Character
I'm twenty-nine, yes really, I'm from Aspen, Colorado, I'm six feet one, yes really, I've been at Quantico two years, yes I date guys, no I dress like this just because I like it, no I'm not married, no I don't currently have a boyfriend, and no I don't want to have dinner with you tonight.Collection: Years
Plan A is to hitch a ride out of here. But if they want a war, then plan B is to win it.Collection: War
A handgun at two hundred feet is the same thing as crossing your fingers and making a wish.Collection: Two
The key to thrillers is vicarious pleasure.Collection: Keys
I'd never believed in luck. Never had any cause to. Never relied on it, because I never could.Collection: Luck
A calm environment is for after I finish work.Collection: Calm
The best fights are the ones you don't have", a wise man once said to me.Collection: Wise
I know I'm smarter than an armadilloCollection: Armadillos
Practically any Western has a homesteader in trouble, and a mysterious rider shows up off the range, solves the problem over two or three days, and then rides off into the sunset.Collection: Sunset
I think my books come out very visual, which is an obvious consequence.Collection: Book
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.Collection: July
I have three desks. One empty for paperwork, one for the internet and email, and one for the writing computer.Collection: Writing
I'm not afraid of death. Death's afraid of me.Collection: Not Afraid