One Shot Quotes

“I was in the machine. My whole life. Then the machine coughed and spat me out. So I thought, OK, if I'm out, I'm out. All the way out. I was a little angry and it was probably an immature reaction. But I got used to it.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“I went to college. West Point is technically a college.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“you know much about head injuries?'
'only the ones I cause”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Human motivation is very complex. Most people don’t really know why they do things.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it,”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“His life was like that. It was a mosaic of fragments. Details and contexts would fade and be inaccurately recalled, but the feelings and the experiences would weave over time into a tapestry equally full of good times and bad.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“would never have thought of emptying that parking meter. Not in a million years. It would never have occurred to me to do that.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Just a long labored barely-audible tubercular sound as the last breath he had taken came back out, never to be replaced.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“she took it to Alex Rodin himself.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“It was like dropping a stone down a well and never hearing the splash.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“She was a rat-faced fink and I’m glad she’s dead. Whoever it was did us all a favor.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“He put his quarter in the slot and took out Emerson’s torn card.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“It was the same machine that had been used to level the Zec’s land.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“It had a twenty-inch entrenching shovel with four steel teeth on it.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“What’s that?” Reacher turned and saw Jeb Oliver’s mother behind him.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“He held the straight part of the lock with both hands and leaned back like a water-skier.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“But a lock was only as strong as what it was fixed to.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Got a blast of mid-period Sheryl Crow in return, which he didn’t mind at all. He stayed with it. Every day is a winding road, Sheryl told him. I know, he thought. Tell me about it.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“He figured if Emerson was efficient he would have to wait less than thirty minutes. Very efficient, less than twenty. Average, somewhere up around an hour. He leaned on the trash can and passed the time.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“He took Emerson’s torn card out of his pocket.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Tammy came in with three cups of coffee on a tray. There was cream and sugar and a small plate of cookies with them, and three paper napkins. She put the tray on a low table and sat down next to her husband.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Empty the meter,” he called. “Print all the quarters.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Kinetic energy is a wonderful thing”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“The same thing. Like a matched pair. In his case it was a comedy. Like a fat guy who buys a carbon fiber racing bike.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Kuwait”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Reacher said, “They sleep safely in their beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do them harm.” “You know George Orwell?” Yanni asked. “I went to college,” Reacher said. “West Point is technically a college.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Rosemary Barr stood in front of him, facing him, very”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Khaki”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.” “Joseph Stalin,” Yanni said.”
― Lee Child, One Shot

“Then he turned to Rosemary Barr. “Meanwhile we’ll put you somewhere safe,” he told her. “Your tutorials will start as soon as the soldier is buried.” The outer western suburbs were bedroom communities for people who worked in the city, so the traffic stayed bad all the way out. The houses were much grander than in the east. They were all two-story, all varied, all well maintained. They all had big lots and pools and ambitious evergreen landscaping. With the last of the sunset behind them they looked like pictures in a brochure. “Tight-ass middle class,” Reacher said. “What we all aspire to,” Yanni said. “They won’t want to talk,” Reacher said. “Not their style.” “They’ll talk,” Yanni said. “Everyone talks to me.” They drove past the Archer place slowly. There was a cast-metal sign on thin chains under the mailbox: Ted and Oline Archer. Beyond it, across a broad open lawn, the house looked closed-up and dark and silent. It was a big Tudor place. Dull brown beams, cream stucco. Three-car garage. Nobody home, Reacher thought. The neighbor they were looking for lived across the street and one lot to the north. Hers was a place about the same size as the Archers’ but done in an Italianate style. Stone accents, little crenellated towers, dark green sun awnings on the south-facing ground-floor windows. The evening light was fading away to darkness and lamps were coming on behind draped windows. The whole street looked warm and rested and quiet and very satisfied with itself. Reacher said, “They sleep safely in their beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do them harm.” “You know George Orwell?” Yanni asked. “I went to college,” Reacher said. “West Point is technically a college.” Yanni said, “The existing social order is a swindle and its cherished beliefs mostly delusions.” “It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it,” Reacher said. “I’m sure these are perfectly nice people,” Helen said. “But will they talk to us?” “They’ll talk,” Yanni said. “Everyone talks.” Helen pulled into a long limestone driveway and parked about twenty feet behind an imported SUV that had big chrome wheels. The front door of the house was made of ancient gray weathered oak with iron banding that had nail heads as big as golf balls. It felt like you could step through it straight into the Renaissance. “Property is theft,” Reacher said. “Proudhon,” Yanni said. “Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world.” “Abraham Lincoln,” Reacher said. “In his first State of the Union.” There was an iron knocker shaped like”
― Lee Child, One Shot