Tess Gerritsen > Quotes

“I know there’s evil in the world, and there always has been. But you don’t need to believe in Satan or demons to explain it. Human beings are perfectly capable of evil all by themselves.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Mephisto Club

“The heart makes its choices without weighing the consequences. It doesn't look ahead to the lonely nights that follow.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Keeping The Dead

“Only the forgotten are truly dead.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Sinner

“Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon

“The dead do not hurt you; only the living do.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Sinner

“God, it's like reality's completely shifted on me. I used to think I was standing on such solid ground. If I wanted something badly enough, I just worked like hell for it. Now I can't decide what to do, which move to make. All the things I counted on aren't there for me anymore.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Harvest

“Even divorce, she thought, cannot erase all the bonds forged by years of marriage. Long after the papers are signed, decrees notarized, the ties still remain. And the most powerful tie of all is written in a child's flesh and blood.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Body Double

“We dream our dreams, and sometimes they take us to places we never anticipate. But they are our dreams, and we go where they lead.”
― Tess Gerritsen

“We are all descended from monsters.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Body Double

“Everything's a gamble, love most of all.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Sinner

“... he knew that the cruelest of blows too often came with a smile.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Ice Cold

“We never know until the beast of opportunity is staring us in the face.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon

“Sometimes, the person who could make you happiest is the one who waits patiently in the wings.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Rizzoli & Isles Series Collection: The Surgeon, the Appentice, the Sinner, Body Double, Vanish, the Mephisto Club, Keeping the Dead and the Killing Place

“She was the only woman in the homicide unit, and already there had been problems between her and another detective, charges of sexual harassment, countercharges of unrelenting bitchiness.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon

“She now knew her death was inevitable, and with that acceptance came liberation. The courage of the condemned.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon

“The one man you most want to sleep with may be the worst choice of all.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Body Double

“With every year that I grow older, I also draw closer to (my loved ones) to the day when we will once again be together. So I march through the deepening shadows, serene and unafraid, because I know that at the end of my journey they will be waiting for me.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Silent Girl

“You know that movie, where the little boy says 'I see dead people'?

The Sixth Sense.

Well, I see them all the time, and I'm getting tired of it. That's what's ruined my mood. Here it is, almost Christmas, and I didn't even think about putting up a tree, because I'm still seeing the autopsy lab in my head. I'm still smelling it on my hands. I come home on a day like this, after two postmortems, and I can't think about cooking dinner. I can't even look at a piece of meat without thinking of muscle fibers. All I can deal with is a cocktail. And then I pour the drink and smell the alcohol, and suddenly there I am, back in the lab. Alcohol, formalin, they both have that same sharp smell.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Sinner

“Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon

“She siged, a sound of regret for childhood transgressions, for all the lessons learned too late.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Body Double

“Now we sit and wait,” the woman said, and she settled into a chair, the gun on her lap.
“What are we waiting for?” Jane asked.
The woman stared at her. Said, calmly: “The end.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Vanish

“What Rizzoli thought, staring at her own image, was that she hated Elizabeth Hurley for giving women false hope. The brutal truth was, there are some women who will never be beautiful, and Rizzoli was one of them.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon

“We are not as impervious as we think we are. - Dr Maura Isles”
― Tess Gerritsen, Body Double

“Ha! Kids! You have no idea what you put your parents through, either. Wait till you have your own, you'll see. That's when you'll know what it really feels like." .. "What what feels like?"..."Love," said Angela.”
― Tess Gerritsen

“The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Sinner

“No man easily admits that he is afraid.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Sinner

“Charles threw down the knife. Its thud was lost in the high-spirited bedlam of young men let loose upon a task so gruesome, the only sane response was perverse frivolity.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Bone Garden

“My name is Mila, and this is my journey.
There are so many places where I could begin the story. I could start in the town where I grew up, in Kryvicy, on the banks of the Servac River, in the district of Miadziel. I could begin when I was eight years old, on the day my mother died, or when I was twelve, and my father fell beneath the wheels of the neighbour’s truck. But I think I should begin my story here, in the Mexican desert, so far from my home in Belarus. This is where I lost my innocence. This is where my dreams died.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Vanish

“She pressed her fingers to the woman’s neck and felt icy skin.
Bending close to the lips, she waited for the whisper of a breath, the faintest puff of air against her cheek.
The corpse opened its eyes.”
― Tess Gerritsen, Vanish

“Had she always been so insulated from human contact, like a bloom encased in frost?”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon

“Deves prestar sempre atenção aos teus sonhos, ensinara-lhe a mãe. São vozes que te dizem o que já sabes, sussurrando-te conselhos que ainda não seguiste.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Keepsake

“...men that age aren't known for their superior judgment.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Bone Garden

“If you want to remain at liberty, I suggest you not antagonize your defenders.”
― Tess Gerritsen, The Bone Garden

“After years of feeling like a misfit, I've realized that the world is full of other misfits, all of us identifying with Hobbits - - the little guys whom no one else respects. And who quietly end up changing the course of history.”
― Tess Gerritsen