Heist Quotes

“Jesper: “If Pekka Rollins kills us all, I’m going to get Wylan’s ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost.”
Kaz: “I’ll just hire Matthias’ ghost to kick your ghost’s ass.”
Matthias: “My ghost won’t associate with your ghost.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“Get a message to the Crow Club,” she said. “Tell Kaz Brekker the queen of Ravka has a job for him.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“Kat," Hale groaned, then fell back onto the pillows.
"Funny, I didn't hear a doorbell."
"I let myself in; hope that's okay."
Hale smiled. "Or the alarm."
She stepped inside, tossed a pocket-size bag of tools onto the bed.
"You're due for an upgrade."
Hale propped himself against the antique headboard and squinted up at her.
"She returns." He crossed his arms across his bare chest. "You know, I could be naked in here.”
― Ally Carter, Heist Society

“Do you understand any of this?" he said, pointing to the lines and symbols that covered the massive screens.
"Some people understand the value of an education."
Hale stretched and crossed his legs, the settled his arm around Kat's shoulders.
"That's sweet, Kat. Maybe later I'll buy you a university. And an ice cream."
"I'd settle for the ice cream."
"Deal.”
― Ally Carter, Heist Society

“I didn't know there were this many math guys," Hale said as they stepped onto the crowded concourse.
Kat cleared her throat.
"And women," he added. "Math women.”
― Ally Carter, Heist Society

“You know" - Hale's breath was warm against Kat's ear in the chilly ballroom- "I don't know that both of us really have to be here...."
The slide changed. While hundreds of mathematicians waited with baited breath, the boy beside Kat whispered,
"I could go make some calls... check on some things..."
"Play some blackjack?"
"Well, when in Rome..."
"Rome is tomorrow, babe," Kat reminded him.
He nodded. "Right.”
― Ally Carter, Heist Society

“You know you're smarter than all of them, right?" Hale said flatly.
"In fact, if you wanted to PROVE it..."
He glanced at the blackjack tables.
Simon shook his head. "I don't count cards, Hale."
"Don't?" Hale smiled. "Or won't? You know, technically, it's not illegal."
"But it's frowned upon."
Sweat beaded at Simon's brow.
He sounded like someone had just suggested he swim after eating... run with scissors...
"It is SERIOUSLY frowned upon.”
― Ally Carter, Heist Society

“Oh you’re heist-drunk Kitty Kat. And you have been since the Henley.”
― Ally Carter, Uncommon Criminals

“Because you live to love and love to live/ And because of what your heardrum will give/ Now we might love to live and live to love.”
― Janet Goodfriend, For the Love of Art

“Loss was the hesitation in his voice when he spoke his mother tongue, the myths he did not know, a childhood that felt so vast and
alien from his parents' that he did not know how to cross it.”
― Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief

“Ready?” she asked.
Nina clutched the rope. “To be lowered like a sack of flour into the heart of witchhunter power?”
“This was your idea. We can still turn around.”
“Do not second-guess the sack of flour. The sack of flour is wise beyond her years.”
Hanne rolled her eyes and braced her feet against the edge of the roof, and Nina stepped out into nothing. Hanne released a grunt, but the rope stayed steady. Slowly, she lowered Nina down.
The first two windows she tried were locked tight, but the third gave way and she wiggled inside, landing on the carpeted floor with a thud. She was in a stairway. For a moment, she couldn’t orient herself, but she descended another story, and soon she was at the door to Brum’s office. This time, she didn’t have a key. It had been too risky to steal it again, so she would have to pick the lock. It took an embarrassingly long time. She could almost hear Kaz laughing at her. Shut up, Brekker. Talk to me when you’ve done something about that terrible haircut. Maybe he had by now. She hoped so for Inej’s sake.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“One way or another we’re taking your bank. All you have to do is decide the level of persuasion we need to apply.”
― David Louden, Heroes of Hollywood Boulevard

“They stood either side of him like haunting little genetic bookends. The one thing he’ll leave behind, two kids who called another man for help with their homework.”
― David Louden, Heroes of Hollywood Boulevard

“The boulevard was awash with the curious and the shocked as wave after wave of tourist crashed into the unmoving masses of families who had just witnessed a brawl between The Incredible Hulk and SpongeBob Squarepants over territory, boundaries and the age old issue of ownership.”
― David Louden, Heroes of Hollywood Boulevard

“It had caught her eye the moment she’d walked in. She hadn’t once looked at it since.”
― James Wake, The Sapphire Shadow

“Nice to be back, Kaz.

Good to have you back, Wraith.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“This has been a covert preparation for an overt operation." - Rory in NEVER GO ALONE”
― Denison Hatch, Never Go Alone

“They say you can't cheat death, well that doesn't stop these guys from trying.”
― Michael P. Naughton, Deathryde: Rebel Without a Corpse

“My nose wrinkles at the reek of the trickle of data flowing to the device in his hands; no security system devised by man can withstand the relentless destructive pressure of boredom.”
― Greg Chivers, The Crying Machine

“Dreams heist is when someone who is talented, capable and skillful gives up on themselves, because they think things are too hard. Then they decide to do nothing with their lives, because they are afraid they will fail.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“Kyou handed him a small USB drive, barely bigger than his thumbnail. “Wireless bridge. Plug it into the back of the camera and give me five minutes. We’ll be set.”
“You want me to bullshit my way through measuring for hardware for five minutes?”
Kyou patted him on the arm. “You’re charming. You’ll be fine.”
― A.J. Sherwood, How to Shield an Assassin

“I’m not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to bring Kanish to Mel Odious Sound yesterday. Bringing a Billionheir to a large recording complex full of Producers is like opening a bag of chips at a seagull convention. It wouldn’t be long before every Producer within earshot swooped in to aggressively pitch his latest and greatest pet project, most of which would likely prove unprofitable.

Rev is obviously going to pitch a project, and it very well may be something amazing. But as I’ve pointed out, in order for Kanish to make a profit, he would have to pick up half the Publishing—a non-starter for the Rev. He’s not a Songwriting Producer, so he likely doesn’t have a sufficient portion of the Publishing to share. And even if he did, no seasoned Producer is going to give half of their equity in a song in order to basically secure a small loan from an outside investor. There’s no upside.

For starters, Kanish has no channels of Distribution beyond Streaming, which is already available to anyone and everyone who wants it, and which is currently only profitable for the Major Labels and the stockholders of the Streaming services themselves. Everyone else is getting screwed. And please don’t quote me the Douchebag Big Tech Billionaires running big Streaming Corporations. They are literally lining their pockets with the would-be earnings of Artists and Songwriters alike. What they claim as fair is anything but.

Frankly, I don’t think we should be comfortable with Spotify taking a 30 percent margin off the top, and then disbursing the Tiger’s Share of the remaining 70 percent to the Major Labels who have already negotiated top dollar for access to their catalog. This has resulted in nothing but some remaining scraps trickling down to the tens of thousands of Independent Artists out there who just want to make a living. You can’t make a living off scraps, or even a trickle, for that matter.

Mark my words, we are currently witnessing the greatest heist in the annals of the Music Business, and that’s saying something given its history. Can you say Napster?

Stunningly, the only place that Songwriters can make sufficient Performance Royalties is radio—a medium that is coming up on its hundred-year anniversary. To make matters worse, the Major Distributors still have radio all locked up, and without airplay, there’s no hit. So even now, more than twenty years into the Internet revolution, the odds of breaking through the artistic cacophony without Major-Label Distribution are impossibly low. So much for the Internet leveling the playing field.

At this point, only Congress can solve the problem. And despite the fact that Streaming has been around since the mid-aughts, Congress has done nothing to deal with the issue. Why? Because it’s far cheaper for Big Tech to line the pockets of lobbyists and fund the campaigns of politicians who gladly ignore the issue than it is to pay Artists and Songwriters a fair rate for their work, my friends.

Same is it ever was.

Just so I’m clear, there is a debate to be had as to how much Songwriters and Artists should be paid for Streaming. A radio Spin can reach millions. A Stream rarely reaches more than a few listeners. Clearly, a new method of calculation is required. But that doesn’t mean that we should just sit by as the Big Tech Douchebags rob an entire generation of royalties all so they can sell their Streaming Corporation for billions down the line. I mean, that is the end game, after all. At which point, profit for the new majority stockholder will be all but impossible. How will anyone get paid then?”
― Mixerman, #Mixerman and the Billionheir Apparent

“ISL is a tough place to crack they're the rich and we are the poor you can guarantee that the city is padded with security-” before Kosse could finish Ingra cut in “Yes we are aware of that but the reason we want your help is-”
― Charon Lloyd-Roberts, Putsch: Volume I Chapter Sampler

“If you do not write something original you have written nothing at all.”
― Steve Levi, The Matter of the Deserted Airliner

“Lucas took a tentative sip of his coffee. It tasted like an otter had pissed in a tea urn and it had been left to go stale over a prolonged period.”
― Adam Maxwell

“Shit, you shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.”
― Quentin Tarantino

“She knew all the ways of building up a mark's confidence. She knew how to feed them a little of the sweetest bait whether it was sex or money or power, whatever it was that they adored the most. You were really feeding them the delicious poison of their own egos. You had to let them have a taste of it, and you had to promise them more. You had to make them believe that it would all come true.”
― Stuart Stromin, Wild Cards: A novel by Stuart Stromin

“The hustler knew that all that people ever wanted in the world was what they could not have, and what they had already lost.”
― Stuart Stromin, Wild Cards: A novel by Stuart Stromin

“The tone of any day was set by three things: coffee, bacon, and a plan.”
― Katherine McIntyre, Midnight Heist

“Polished Knives was one of those dark, sultry places with enough glossy surfaces to convince almost anyone that blood hadn’t stained them.”
― Katherine McIntyre, Midnight Heist