The Final Trade Quotes

“You can't keep bearing all the weight. In the end, if you try to save everyone you'll only lose yourself.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“Sometimes the smartest decision is the last one you want to make.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“I can't get away from that feeling. That need to know. It's there every day like a bruise that doesn't heal.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“The line between being practical and being a bastard is thin.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“Some things are too heavy to manage on your own. Certain burdens will break a person if they insist on bearing them alone.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“If I could go back to do some things over, I would in a heartbeat. But that ain't reality. It ain't life. You got to forgive yourself before you can move on. When you forgive yourself the regret gets lighter and lighter and you manage to keep going.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“She lets her gaze become fuzzy again, everything fading into a blur. She could live this way, all things out of focus. Nothing substantial enough to recognize. But maybe she already is.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“Zoey feels the void waver, flex as if it will break and everything inside her will come spilling out. But then Ken’s face appears in her mind and she knows if he were here right now, she would only do one thing differently. She would kill him slower.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“Perhaps he could see inside her, see what she was becoming even before she realized it herself. Saw her for what she is. A murderer. But each time remorse begins to invade her, break her will to hold herself together, the rage returns, almost as strong as the moment she opened the door to the prisoners’ room. It overshadows the guilt. And the void grows.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“Regret is like air: can’t be alive without it.” He seems to be lost in a memory for a second before coming back. “But I’ll tell you what—regret’s made out of lead. It’ll drag you under if you let it.” He glances down at the name tattooed on his arm and looks away. “If I could go back to do some things over, I would in a heartbeat. But that ain’t reality. It ain’t life. You got to forgive yourself before you can move on. When you forgive yourself the regret gets lighter and lighter and you manage to keep going.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“mankind’s egotism would be its undoing in the face of nature.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“Regret is like air: can’t be alive without it.” He”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“It is like the truth is locked solidly inside her. She is a prison of secrets.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“How? she asks herself. How could they do it? How could they let it happen? But already she knows. She’s felt the rage, the hatred, the absolute and utter need to destroy. She’s partaken in it, drank the bitter draft of murder and did it unblinkingly. That is how all travesties occur. Because of people like her.”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“She opens cans, tears sealed packets apart, smelling odors from another time, preserved by the miracle of plastic and aluminum. She”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“Her head is two sizes too large, ungainly, swarming with thoughts. Why?”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade

“The room smells of still air and time. Zoey”
― Joe Hart, The Final Trade