Mark Greaney > Quotes

“The president stopped and turned. "You are a soldier of fortune."
Gentry pushed him forward. "After expenses, I'm really more like a soldier of the middle class.”
― Mark Greaney, On Target

“A plan is just a big list of shit that’s not going to happen.”
― Mark Greaney, On Target

“Zack said, "What do you need to do to get out of here?"
"You have any frags?"
"Negative."
"Smoke?"
"Negative."
"Bangers?"
"That's a negative."
"The f_ck kind of rescue is this?”
― Mark Greaney, Mission Critical

“Son . . . you can never have too much ammo unless you’re drowning or on fire.”
― Mark Greaney, Agent in Place

“There are two types of people in the world. Only two. Sheep and wolves. Court was a wolf, and he knew it. The past few months had weakened him somewhat, but a wolf was always a wolf, and it had never been more evident to him than it was here at the bar, surrounded as he was by a hundred sheep.”
― Mark Greaney, On Target

“My skill set is not conducive to honest work.”
― Mark Greaney, The Gray Man

“Any mission you can’t afford to walk away from is a mission you should run away from.”
― Mark Greaney, On Target

“Whoever they were, they were most definitely fuckers.”
― Mark Greaney, Full Force and Effect

“She spoke into his ear. “You just mugged a guy. Stole his motorcycle.” “Not how I see it.” “How do you see it?” “Colonel Dai just bought a used dirt bike in Vietnam. I was kind of the middleman.” “Tell yourself whatever works, Violator.”
― Mark Greaney, Gunmetal Gray

“Like a man sprinting headlong into a minefield, he entered into a squabble between two Latin women.”
― Mark Greaney, Ballistic

“Bollocks, Court. That’s not you. With you it’s about doing the right thing, come what may. You’ll do it with an ally, you’ll do it with an enemy, or you’ll do it alone. You’ll die before you go against what you believe in. It makes you the one good man in all this.” “It makes me exploitable, and expendable.” “Too true. No argument there, lad.”
― Mark Greaney, Gunmetal Gray

“Court Gentry was a killer of men. These were men. And that’s all there was to it.”
― Mark Greaney, The Gray Man

“I’m that thing you’ve been telling yourself could never happen.”
― Mark Greaney, Relentless

“Hope in one hand and shit in the other. See which one fills up first!”
― Mark Greaney, Dead Eye

“Court Gentry was the Gray Man simply because he believed there existed bad men in this world who truly needed to die.”
― Mark Greaney, The Gray Man

“I hope you can take some constructive criticism.” “Sure.” “It sounds like you are trying to make too many people happy.” Court looked to the carpet a moment. “Welcome to my world.”
― Mark Greaney, Gunmetal Gray

“We have a helicopter overhead and over one hundred men and women looking for him. We have thirty guns right here at the château, waiting on him. We’ve shot him. We’ve stabbed him. We’ve sent him down a mountain, off a bridge. We’ve killed his friends, we’ve bled him dry. What else can we do?”
― Mark Greaney, The Gray Man

“Hope isn’t a strategy, but sometimes it’s all you’ve got.”
― Mark Greaney, One Minute Out

“You can run, but if you can’t run anymore, then you can hide. You can hide, but if you can’t hide anymore, then you can fight. There is nothing after the fight, so you fight until there is nothing.”
― Mark Greaney, Back Blast

“Luck was fleeting, arbitrary, fickle.”
― Mark Greaney, The Gray Man

“They were genuinely impressed with the use of open-source intelligence to derive the identities of America’s spies and agents,”
― Mark Greaney, True Faith and Allegiance

“You see, Sir Donnie, Court Gentry’s compass never has pointed true north. He’s a hit man, for God’s sake. But all his operations, both with the CIA as well as in his private practice, have been against those he deems worthy of extrajudicial execution. Terrorists, Mafia dons, drug dealers, all manner of nefarious ne’er-do-wells. Court is a killer, but he thinks himself to be a righter of wrongs, an instrument of justice. This is his flaw. And this flaw will be his downfall.”
― Mark Greaney, The Gray Man

“It’s a job. Jobs come with bosses, and bosses come with orders, and orders come with . . .” “Bullshit?”
― Mark Greaney, Sierra Six

“Court played his role to the hilt now, cocking his head as if he were wondering if the person asking the question might possibly be mentally deranged. “The CIA? You think I bought my way free of the Agency? I fucking shot my way out, pal.” He rolled his eyes. “Pay off the CIA? They don’t need me to pay them off. They are part of the U.S. federal government, the guys that print U.S. dollars, or didn’t you know?” Dai asked his next question in a flat, emotionless voice. “Did you arrive in a Dassault Falcon yesterday?”
― Mark Greaney, Gunmetal Gray

“It occurred to him that there is so much out there these days about people in open source that a motivated and intelligent individual could take old SF-86 info and translate it into real-time targeting info.”
― Mark Greaney, True Faith and Allegiance

“The only gold stars the CIA gives out are for death in the field, and then only to actual employees, not contracted assets. You get my appreciation.” She smiled. “You’ll get a gold star in a forgotten file when you die. It will have to wait for now, but I doubt it will wait for too long.” “With friends like you.” “All your friends fucked you over, Court. Face it, you are better off with a straight shooter like me managing you.”
― Mark Greaney, Gunmetal Gray

“Zoya pulled the fitted sheet off the bed and began tying it with the others. While she worked, she said, “No offense, Mr. Wonderful, but that’s only a problem for you and Fitzroy. I don’t even know the guy.”
― Mark Greaney, Gunmetal Gray

“voicing your greatest fears is the best way to get you put on the outside looking in.”
― Mark Greaney, Sierra Six

“Court Gentry was the Gray Man, and the Gray Man lived for this shit.”
― Mark Greaney, Ballistic

“Being the Gray Man didn’t mean being in control at all times. Sometimes it meant relinquishing all control, playing the game, and dealing with fucking bullshit like some asshole standing on the back of your head.”
― Mark Greaney, Gunmetal Gray