Harlan Wolff > Harlan's Quotes

“Every time I got married I was told it was time to settle down, and every time I got divorced I was told it was time to settle up. My accountant says I can't afford to settle down anymore." - Carl Engel (A farewell to Paradise)”
― Harlan Wolff, A Farewell to Paradise

“He had been bored, that's all, bored like most people. Hence he had made himself out of whole cloth a life full of complications and drama. Something must happen - and that explains most human commitments. Something must happen, even loveless slavery, even war or death. Hurray then for funerals!”
― Albert Camus, The Fall

“The morning television had been martial music and generals, admirals, air marshals and police chiefs displaying crisp uniforms and chests full of medals. Carl wondered, as he did during every coup, what all the medals were for; there hadn’t been a war. Maybe they got them for showing up on time to the previous coup.”
― Harlan Wolff, Bangkok Rules

“CIA Interrogator:
Have you ever met any jazz musicians you would describe, or who would describe themselves, as anarchists?

Bartholomew 'Barley' Scott Blair:
Hmmm... ah, there was a trombone player, Wilfred Baker.

Bartholomew 'Barley' Scott Blair:
He's the only jazz musician I can think of who is completely devoid of anarchist tendencies.”
― John le Carré, The Russia House

“Because this devil is definitely an older man, probably foreign. The FBI would classify him as a type IV killer, the worst kind and difficult to catch. A type IV serial killer has no remorse, doesn’t understand the concept. He has what they call an anger-excitation profile. The whole process he performs is his own way to sexual gratification. This man kills for sport. He’s not out of control, quite the opposite in fact. Most importantly, in regard to your daughter’s safety, the rules of his game are that he must murder strangers. He doesn’t kill people he knows. So if your daughter’s with people she knows then she cannot be with the killer.”
― Harlan Wolff, Bangkok Rules

“After a while Carl asked him, “How does it make you feel that those politicians have so much while you have so little?”

The driver shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Don’t
you understand that they must have done something good in their previous life to get so much in this one?”

Carl nodded even though he didn’t understand and probably never would.”
― Harlan Wolff, Bangkok Rules

“Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“We must love one another or die”
― W.H. Auden