"The success of any trap lies in its fundamental simplicity. The reverse trap by the nature of its single complication must be swift and simpler still."
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"How gratifying to be there when arrogance collapses. How much more so to be the instrument. (Alfred Gillette)"
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"If I haven't done badly, it's because I've become indispensable to too many like David Abbott. I have in my head a thousand facts they couldn't possibly recall. It's simply easier for them to place me where the questions are, where problems need solutions. (Alfred Gillette)"
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"Men and women walked casually about as they did on the main floor, every now and then stopping one another, exchanging pleasantries or scraps of relevantly irrelevant information. Gossip."
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"Before taking her into the library, my wife told me she was an old friend in a marriage crisis. A fatuous lie; at her age there are no crises left in marriage, only acceptance and extraction. (General Villiers)"
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"I loathe him. He stands for everything I hate in Washington. The right schools, houses in Georgetown, farms in Virginia, quiet meetings at their clubs. They've got their tight little world and you don't break in--they run it all. The bastards. The superior, self-inflated gentry of Washington. They use other men's intellects, other men's work, wrapping it all into decisions bearing their imprimaturs. And if you're on the outside, you become part of that amorphous entity, a 'damn fine staff.' (Alfred Gillette)"
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"I mean, we're all trying to find out who the hell we are, aren't we?"
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"A man's weaknesses may intrude on his faith but they do not diminish it."
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Ultimatum)

"I see things and I hear things I do not understand. I'm a skilled, resourceful... vegetable!"
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity)

"Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd."
— Robert Ludlum (The Janson Directive)

"Well, let me tell you, gentlemen, the games of the devil are not restricted to those confined to hell. Others can play them."
— Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Ultimatum)

""Sleep is a weapon!""
— Robert Ludlum