False Witness Quotes

“I miss anonymity. People have a right to disappear if they want to. It’s a personal decision, isn’t it? Everyone should have autonomy. We owe it to them as fellow human beings to support their decisions, even if we do not agree with them.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“I’m not sure,” Callie said. “As you know, cats choose not to talk because they’re afraid we’ll make them pay taxes.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“How I compare it to now is, at this moment we are all living through, everyone on earth is experiencing a suspension of loss. Over half a million people dead in the United States alone. The number is too overwhelming to accept, so we go on with our lives and we do what we can but, in the end, the staggering loss will be waiting for us. It always catches up to you, doesn’t it?”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“You didn’t help chop up a two-hundred-fifty-pound man and still graduate at the top of your class without learning how to compartmentalize.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Your relationship with a person doesn’t end when they die. It only gets stronger.” He winked at her. “Mostly because they’re not there to tell you that you’re wrong.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Everybody felt that history was like a book, a beginning, a middle and an end. That’s not how it worked. Real life was all middle.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“If you want to measure the height of a mountain, the hardest part isn’t finding the peak, it’s figuring out where the bottom starts.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“around for your entire adult life, then set it the fuck down, because it doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to him.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“I love how you southern women say sweetheart like a yankee woman would say dumbass.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Do what?” Buddy sounded flip. His eyes darted down to the wad of cash. “You got what you wanted.” She shook her head. She had never wanted this. She had wanted to feel safe. To feel protected. To have someone interested in her life, her thoughts, her dreams.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“As she limped down the stairs, she considered all the drugs in her backpack. Tramadol, methadone, ketamine, buprenorphine. Mix them all into a pint of tequila and she could get a front-row seat to Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse talking about what a douche Jim Morrison could be.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“She doubted a generation that had grown up with WAP, murder hornets, Covid, cataclysmic social unrest, and being forcibly home-schooled by a bunch of depressed day drinkers really understood the threat of pool halls, but Leigh had to hand it to the drama teacher for putting on a gender-neutral production of The Music Man, one of the least offensive and most tedious musicals ever staged by a middle school.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Callie would never understand how Bill Gates had been shortsighted enough to give everybody easy access to the internet so that some day, these jackasses could reveal all of his dastardly plans.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Leigh was constantly amazed when rich white people assumed the system always worked until they found themselves wrapped up in it. Then, it had to be some kind of God damned conspiracy.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“That was how it was with abusive parents. They only remembered the good times and you only remembered the bad.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“it was better to be guilty and rich than innocent and poor.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“They only remembered the good times”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“The man said, “The vaccine put microchips in my brain.” Callie confided, “I’m worried my cat is saving up to buy a motorcycle.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“God knew that Leigh had witnessed her share of brutality, but she felt a sudden vulnerability sitting in a small room with two loud men who were arguing about bitches while the horrific evidence of a savage sexual assault flashed across the screen.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Leigh hadn’t fallen asleep until two this morning”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Leigh wasn’t one of those believers in bad blood or apples not falling far from the tree. Otherwise, she would be an abusive alcoholic with a felony assault conviction. People could transcend their circumstances. It was possible to break the cycle.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“He knew how to work with his hands, but he knew how to use his brain so he could pay someone else to do the job.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“No." Callie's tone was as firm as it had ever been. "Listen to me, Harleigh. What happened is what happened. We were both his victims. We both forgot how bad it was because that was the only way we could survive."
"It wasn't—" Leigh stopped herself, because there was no counter-argument. They had both been children. They had both been victims. All she could do was go back to where she started.
"I'm sorry."
"You can't be sorry for something that you couldn't control. Don't you get that?"
Leigh shook her head, but part of her desperately wanted to believe what Callie was saying was true.
"I want you to hear me," Callie said. "If this is the guilt you've been carrying around for your entire adult life, then set it the fuck down, because it doesn't belong to you. It belongs to him."
Leigh was so used to crying that she didn't notice her own tears. "I'm so sorry."
"For what?" Callie demanded. "It's not your fault. It was never your fault."
The twist on her familiar mantra broke something inside of Leigh. She put her head in her hands. She started to sob so hard that she couldn't hold herself up.
Callie wrapped her arms around Leigh, taking some of the burden. Her lips pressed into the top of Leigh's head. Callie had never held her before. Usually, it was the other way around.
Usually, it was Leigh providing the comfort, because Walter was right. From the beginning, Phil had never been their mother. It was only Leigh and Callie, back then, and it was only Leigh and Callie right now.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“He was a pedophile." Callie spoke quietly, still testing the weight of her words. "We were kids. We were pliable. That's what he wanted— a child he could exploit. It didn't matter which one of us he got to first. What mattered to him was which one of us he could make come back for more."
Leigh swallowed so hard again that her throat hurt. Her logical mind told her that Callie was right. Her heart still told her that she had failed to protect her baby sister.
"I wonder who else he did it to?" Callie asked. "You know we weren't the only ones." Leigh was aghast. She had never considered there were other victims, but of course there were other victims. "I don't—I don't know."
"Maybe Minnie what's-her-name?" Callie said. "She babysat for Andrew when you were in juvie. Do you remember that?"
Leigh didn't, but she could clearly recall Linda's exasperation over the number of previous sitters who had abandoned her son for seemingly no reason.
"He convinced you that you were special."
Callie wiped her nose on her sleeve. "That's what Buddy did. He made it seem like you were the only one. That he was a normal guy until you came along, and now he was in love with you because you were special.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“During Zachary's short lifetime, the science of addiction was well-documented, but it's different when it's your own child. You assume they know better, or are somehow different, when the fact is that as special as they are, they are just like everyone else." Dr. Jerry confided,
"I'm ashamed when I think back on my behavior. Had I the ability to redo those last few months, I would spend those precious hours telling Zachary that I loved him, not screaming at the top of my lungs that he must've had some kind of moral failure, an absence of character, a hatred for his family, that made him choose not to stop.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“She opened her mouth, and the words flooded out. "I'm sorry, Dr. Jerry. I shouldn't be here. I should've never come back. I'm a horrible person. I don't deserve your help. Or your trust. I've been stealing from you and I'm
9つ
"My friend," he said. "That is what you are.
You're my friend, as you have been since you were seventeen years old."
She shook her head. She wasn't his friend.
She was a leech.
He asked, "Do you remember that first time you knocked on my door? I'd put out a help wanted sign, but I had secretly hoped that the help would come from someone as special as you."
Callie couldn't take his kindness. She started crying so hard that she had to gulp for breath.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Leigh.” Walter was looking at her. “He asked me about Maddy. He asked about you. I thought he was another dad.” “He tricked you.” Leigh hated the sound of guilt straining his voice. “It wasn’t your fault.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Oh, baby girl, from the moment you walked into the meeting.” Sidney was smiling, but there was nothing fun or sexy about her mouth now, because she had been playing Callie like a fiddle the entire time.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Tell her I can’t live without her. Tell her that Buddy tried it with me, too. Tell her it’s my fault for not protecting her. Tell her I want to hold on to her as tight as I can until she understands that I will never be healed until she is.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“We were in the conference room going over his case,” Leigh said. “He told me that his mask made it hard to breathe. He said it was like someone wrapped plastic film around his head six times.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness