Gray Mountain Quotes

“They say a woman marries a man with the belief she can change him, and she can’t. A man marries a woman with the belief that she won’t change, and she does.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Appalachia was Appalachia, regardless of boundaries someone had set an eternity ago. A land of breathtaking beauty, of steep hills and rolling mountains”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“before a jury. It takes time: time to”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“every company of a certain size must have committed egregious sins to succeed in the cutthroat world of Western capitalism.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Black lung is a legal term for a preventable, occupational lung disease. It is more formally known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), and is caused by prolonged exposure to coal dust. Once coal dust is inhaled into the body it cannot be removed or discharged. It progressively builds up in the lungs and can lead to inflammation, fibrosis, even necrosis. There are two forms of the disease: “simple CWP” and “complicated CWP” (or progressive massive fibrosis).”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Relief, fear, and humiliation. Her parents paid for a pricey prep school education in D.C. She graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown with a degree in political science. She breezed through law school and finished with honors. A dozen megafirms offered her jobs after a federal court clerkship. The first twenty-nine years of her life had seen overwhelming success and little failure. To be discharged in such a manner was crushing. To be escorted out of the building was degrading. This was not just a minor bump in a long, rewarding career.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“shook hands. She thanked him for his pro bono”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Did you know that some of the counties in the coalfields have the highest rates of cancer in the country?”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“The relief came from the sudden realization that she had just been freed from a job she despised.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“litigation funders are private companies that raise money from their investors to buy into big lawsuits.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“he’s now in hiding, in another state. I give him cash to live on.” “Is that legal?” “That’s not a fair question in coal country. Nothing is black-and-white in my world. The enemy breaks every rule in the book, so the fight is never fair. If you play by the rules, you lose, even when you’re on the right side.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“You just don’t understand men, Samantha. Looking is automatic and it’s harmless. We all look. Come on.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“The law does not allow a miner to pay a lawyer; therefore, a typical miner with a claim must try to navigate the federal black lung system by himself. The coal industry is harshly resistant to claims, regardless of the proof offered by the miner. The companies fight the claims with experienced attorneys who skillfully manipulate the system. For a miner who prevails, his process usually takes about five years.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“She watched the horde attack the food and observed, to herself, that most could afford to skip a meal or two.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Lying in bed and staring at the ancient wooden beams across her ceiling,”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“She would knock down two million plus a year for twenty years, then retire and travel the world.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Samantha poured a glass of wine and filled the tub with warm water. She soaked and drank and decided that, in spite of the money, she hated Big Law and would never go back.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“It was not unusual in Big Law for women to wake up at the age of forty and realize they were still single and a decade had just passed by.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Let’s take a trip, find a beach somewhere and drink rum.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“out by truck, it’s washed, which”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“caught a glance or two and decided to”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Look, it’s a 9-millimeter Glock automatic. The safety is off so it’s ready to go.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“After three months in Brady, Samantha felt liberated in the city. She shopped with her mother in midtown, battling the crowds but enjoying the frenetic energy.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“It’s legal because it’s not illegal.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“At that moment, though, there were no options. These boys were enjoying their George Dickel straight, no ice. It burned her lips and scalded her tongue and set fire to her esophagus, but when Donovan asked, “How is it?” she managed a smile and said, “Fine.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“was she following her parents’ examples?”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Driving back to Brady, Mattie said, “A license to practice law is a powerful tool, Samantha, when it’s used to help little people. Crooks like Snowden are accustomed to bullying folks who can’t afford representation. But you get a good lawyer involved and the bullying stops immediately.” “You’re a pretty good bully yourself.” “I’ve had practice.” “When did you prepare the lawsuit?” “We keep them in inventory. The file is actually called ‘Dummy Lawsuits.’ Just plug in a different name, splash the words ‘Federal Court’ all over it, and they scatter like squirrels.” Dummy lawsuits. Scattering like squirrels. Samantha wondered how many of her classmates at Columbia had been exposed to such legal tactics.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“You see, Mr. Snowden, the Constitution says, quite clearly, that you cannot imprison a poor person for failing to pay his debts. I don’t expect you to know this because you work for a bunch of crooks. However, trust me on this, the federal judges understand it because they’ve read the Constitution, most of them anyway. Debtors’ prisons are illegal. Ever heard of the Equal Protection Clause?”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“The contrast was startling: the beauty of the ridges against the poverty of the people who lived between them. There were some pretty homes with neat lawns and white picket fences, but the neighbors were usually not as prosperous.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain

“Trucks hauling coal that weighs a hundred tons, racing across old, twenty-ton bridges still used by school buses, and absolutely ignoring every rule of the road. If there’s an accident, it’s usually bad. In West Virginia, they’re killing one innocent driver per week. The trucker swears he was doing nothing wrong, his buddy backs him up, there are no other witnesses, so the jury falls in line with Big Coal.”
― John Grisham, Gray Mountain