Suspense Quotes

“Things'll get worse before they get better.”
― Karen M. McManus, One of Us Is Lying

“Do as little harm to others as you can; make any sacrifice for your true friends; be responsible for yourself and ask nothing of others; and grab all the fun you can. Don't give much thought to yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow, live in the moment, and trust that your existence has meaning even when the world seems to be all blind chance and chaos. When life lands a hammer blow in your face, do your best to respond to the hammer as if it had been a cream pie.”
― Dean Koontz

“Have you ever met someone for the first time, but in your heart you feel as if you’ve met them before?”
― JoAnne Kenrick, When A Mullo Loves A Woman

“There is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I'll explain what I mean.

We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!"

In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.”
― Alfred Hitchcock

“Where’s everybody? I thought you had started production.”
“They’ve got a day off, but don’t worry you’ll see the machinery is here.”
But Brown was worried. As they entered the canteen, the lights came on
automatically. There was nobody there.
“What’s going…...” but he never finished the sentence. Brown felt a sharp pain on the
side of his head and everything went black.”
― Max Nowaz, The Arbitrator

“Listen carefully. I'd crush you like a bug for causing my wife one single moment of pain. Believe it. Fear it. ”
― (Roarke)J.D. Robb

“I wanted to thank you for saving my life. I am still puzzled about your motives
though. Was it revenge against Zedan for rejecting you?”
“You insult me. It seems that you think of everybody in the same lowly terms you
think of yourself. If there is anybody I should hate for Zedan rejecting me, it should be
you. He was only doing what is expected of him in our society.”
“You mean you don't hate me?” This was a new revelation to Brown. It worried him.
He was used to hate, he could deal with it, but this he could not understand, he had used
the girl ruthlessly and yet she did not hate him.”
― Max Nowaz, The Arbitrator

“Eve: What is it about asking you Catholic questions that gets you all jumpy?

Roarke: You'd be jumpy, too, if I asked you things that make you feel the hot breath of hell at your back.

Eve: You're not going to hell.

Roarke: Oh, and have you got some inside intel on that?

Eve: You married a cop...you married me. I'm your goddamn salvation.”
― J.D. Robb, Salvation in Death

“Are you really a reporter?” asked Brown.
“You already asked me that. Come back to Levita, take the pardon.”
 “I doubt I’ll live long enough to get there,” said Brown bitterly.
“I hope you survive. You are a fighter. And we have the antidote for your habit on
Levita. I suggest you take a vacation. There’s nothing much that’s going to happen here.”
With that she left, leaving Brown more confused than ever.
He was a father, he had a son. And, the Levitians had a cure for his drug-addled body.”
― Max Nowaz, The Arbitrator

“Roarke: The bodies of the three men were found floating in the Chattahoochee River.

Eve: I think it'd be embarrassing to be dead in the Hoochie-Coochie River.

Roarke: Chattahoochee

Eve: What's the difference?

Roarke: Quite a bit, I'd think.”
― J.D. Robb, Promises in Death

“Donde, he offered a piece of candy to a little
   boy.”
― Kyle Keyes, Under the Bus

“I told you she was doing all four of 'em.”
― Kyle Keyes, Under the Bus

“She was a ray of sunshine, a warm summer rain, a bright fire on a cold winter’s day, and now she could be dead because she had tried to save the man she loved.”
― Grace Willows

“Statues are too much like dolls, and dolls are creepy. You keep expecting them to blink. And the ones that smile, like this?" Eve kept her lips tight together and she curved them up. "You know they've got teeth in there. Big, sharp, shiny teeth."

I didn't. But now I've got to worry about it.”
― J.D. Robb, Salvation in Death

“Oh, he did look like a deity – the perfect balance of danger and charm, he was at the same time fascinating and inaccessible, distant because of his demonstrated flawlessness, and possessing such strength of character that he was dismaying and at the same time utterly attractive in an enticing and forbidden way.”
― Simona Panova, Nightmarish Sacrifice

“She, as no other ever could, reached every corner of his heart. His joy, and his salvation.”
― J.D. Robb

“There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“They say that when you're about to die, your life flashes before your eyes. They never tell you that when you watch someone you once loved dying, hovering between this life and the next, it's twice as painful, because you're reliving two lives that traveled one road together.”
― Becca Fitzpatrick, Black Ice

“I’m a soldier,’ Nathan said. ‘We’re all soldiers, now. Soldiers don’t leave people behind.”
― Barry Kirwan, When the children come

“No one else could share his quandary. His agonies were a mixture of shame, of loss fueled by profoundly rooted fury—solitary burdens he had carried with him like pockets of sorrow weighing him down, forcing him to become stronger. When the Devil was gnawing at him, he’d withstood the pain.”
― Tom Baldwin, Macom Farm

“Roarke: You'd enjoy flying more if you'd learn the controls.

Eve: I'd rather pretend I'm on the ground.

Roarke: And how many vehicles have you wrecked, had blown up, or destroyed in the last, oh, two years?

Eve: Think about that, then imagine it happening when I'm at the wheel at thirty thousand feet.

Roarke: Good point. I'll do the flying.”
― J.D. Robb, Kindred in Death

“Everybody is equally weak on the inside, just that some present their ruins as new castles and become kings –”
― Simona Panova, Nightmarish Sacrifice

“We strive for harmony, but it is not always realized.”
― C. Toni Graham, Crossroads and the Himalayan Crystals

“Postmen have a legendary aura. A ring at the doorbell may inflame a sense of expectation, suspense, secrecy, hazard or even intrigue. Ringing twice may imply a warning that trouble is on the way or an appeal to make the coast clear. Not all mailmen, though, will ring twice and await an eye-catching Lana Turner, whom they can whisper: "With my brains and your looks, we could go places.” ("The postman always rings twice")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“I'm giving serious thought into eating yor wife” - Hannibal Lecter”
― Thomas Harris

“Time was not on their side, it was the enemy.”
― C. Toni Graham, Crossroads and the Himalayan Crystals

“They came for him near midnight, seven hard-faced men arriving simultaneously in a matching set of Zis 101s, the black-lacquered saloon car so shamelessly modeled on the American Buick Roadmaster, and so capriciously favored by the sinister flying squads of the NKVD.
Ironically, the arrest when it came did not shock Batya. He had prepared for it.”
― KGE Konkel, Who Has Buried the Dead?: From Stalin to Putin … The last great secret of World War Two

“I love you, Katherine James. I love you with everything I am. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me. Remember that."

Gabe Rossiter”
― Pamela Clare, Naked Edge

“Mr. Hooks?”
“Mr. Ludefance? Pleasure to meet you and thank you for coming in.”
As he extended his hand to me, I noticed the girl at the desk staring at my face. Hooks looked back at her staring and must have given her a look of some kind.
“Mr. Ludefance, this is my secretary, Cholia.”
She stood up and continued to stare at my scar. Black hair, cute face, maybe five-foot-four at the most, and a little on the plump side with rosy cheeks. Young. Very young. Looked like a teenager to me. Or was I just getting ‘older?”
― Behcet Kaya, Appellate Judge

“And now Anderson stood looking at his father. His hands were trembling with eagerness, extending toward him, wanting his father to embrace him. He wanted to love it back to life for all those lost times, for all those times of hope. “Permission to sit, sir?”
― Behcet Kaya, Murder on the Naval Base