Puppet on a Chain Quotes

“I was warm and dry and fed, the jonge Genever was happily chasing the red corpuscles in a game of merry-go-round, all the coloured threads were weaving themselves into a beautiful pattern and by day’s end it would be over. I had never felt so good before. I was never to feel so good again.”
― Alistair MacLean, Puppet on a Chain

“I hope you know what you are doing,’ van Gelder said. He sounded grave. ‘You hope,’ I said. ‘How do you think I feel?’ Neither of them said how they thought I felt, and as it seemed that the line of conversation was taking an unprofitable turn we all kept quiet until we arrived at our destination.”
― Alistair MacLean, Puppet on a Chain

“unspecified exhortation, when translated into practice, is always liable to a certain amount of executive misdirection,”
― Alistair MacLean, Puppet on a Chain

“I’d had my professional successes that, considered by themselves, totted up to a pretty impressive list but a list that, compared to the quota of failures, paled into a best-forgotten insignificance.”
― Alistair MacLean, Puppet on a Chain

“I am sorry, Miss Lemay. This must have been a great shock to you and it’s all my fault. Will you come and have a drink with me? You look as if you need one.’ She dabbed her cheek some more and looked at me in a manner that demolished all thoughts of instant friendship. ‘I wouldn’t even cross the road with you,’ she said tonelessly. The way she said it indicated that she would willingly have gone half-way across a busy street with me and then abandoned me there. If I had been a blind man. ‘Welcome to Amsterdam,’ I said drearily and trudged off in the direction of the nearest bar.”
― Alistair MacLean, Puppet on a Chain

“We know about this deliberate policy admittedly as effective as it is suicidal – of endless provocation, waiting for something, for somebody to break. But please, Major Sherman, please do not try to provoke too many people in Amsterdam. We have too many canals.”
― Alistair MacLean, Puppet on a Chain