Wiseguy Quotes
More Wiseguy Quotes
“Two rules: You enter without breaking. And you remember that nobody misses what you don’t take.”
—Aftershock
by Andrew Vachss
“Maybe a good night's sleep was asking too much in her line of work. She chased killers for a living and in order to catch them she sometimes had to crawl inside their heads, walk around in their skin.”
—Fireproof
by Alex Kava
“Mazarelle had learned that what really drives you crazy is when you know it’s hopeless, and there’s nothing you can do.”
—The Paris Directive
by Gerald Jay
“What remained was a strange emptiness, as if a close relative had died. For many years the pain had been his constant companion; now it was gone. The fact brought him no relief or satisfaction.”
—The Steel Spring
by Per Wahlöö
“Most people go through life using up half their energy trying to protect a dignity they never had.”
—The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler
“Sit up straight.... You'll have plenty of time to lie down if I find out you've been lying.”
—The Real Cool Killers
by Chester Himes
“And he really wished he were smart; he would really have appreciated that quality.”
—The Leopard
by Jo Nesbø
“It was true what they told you when you first came out: The longer you remained in the Far East, the less you understood.”
—The Last Six Million Seconds
by John Burdett
“Theirs was a gang with no name. None was needed. No rival crew was going to claim the Badlands—the Cross crew was only a whispered rumor to most outlaws, but none wanted to test it.”
—Blackjack
by Andrew Vachss
“If the husband is always the prime suspect, the lover must be second in line.”
—White Shotgun
by April Smith
“What we got now instead of guns, Billy thinks, is we got lawyers.”
—California Fire and Life
by Don Winslow
“‘I knew I was in danger the whole time, darling,’ she whispered. ‘That was why I gave him the welcome drink as soon as he came through the door.’”
—Headhunters
by Jo Nesbø
“Her mouth turned down at the corners again. Her bosom changed from a promise to a threat.”
—The Chill
by Ross Macdonald
“I think if you need to use a gun you’re doing a lousy job as a detective.”
—Spade & Archer
by Joe Gores
“Any time someone disagrees with me it bothers me some. It comes from thinking you’re always right.”
—Blind Man's Alley
by Justin Peacock
“The possibility of finally learning the truth terrified me. The truth meant the end of illusions.”
—The Garden of Betrayal
by Lee Vance
“It was all extremely passionate and idealistic, which I have always found to be a very dangerous combination.”
—Dexter by Design
by Jeff Lindsay
“I kissed her. Her eyes were shining up at me like two blue stars. It was like being in church.”
—The Postman Always Rings Twice
by James M. Cain
“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.”
—The Last Good Kiss
by James Crumley
“Even if someone is overcome with rage, it takes amazing arrogance to kill.”
—Die For You,
by Lisa Unger
“Nothing scared me that night. I was driving. They were chasing me, and it felt like that was how it was supposed to be.”
—The Getaway Man,
by Andrew Vachss
“Obviously, you can choose to live a pointless life if you want to—watch the film backwards, for Christ’s sake, or hold the book upside down as you read it. But don’t kid yourself that if you do, you’ve understood anything.”
—Mind’s Eye,
by Håkan Nesser
“People always have secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.”
—The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,
by Stieg Larsson
“A circus here, a circus there; here today, gone tomorrow.
Big Brother watching you.
Fear eats the soul.”
—Nineteen Seventy-Four,
by David Peace
“She was playing a game with us and her own mind, I thought, performing dangerous stunts on the cliff edge of reality, daring the long cloudy fall.”
—The Chill,
by Ross Macdonald
“She smelled so good I thought I might have to pull over to the side of the road and cry for awhile.”
—Bad Chili,
by Joe R. Lansdale
“I do not, as the shrinks put it so eloquently, have any sense of the reality of others. And I am not burdened by this realization.”
—Darkly Dreaming Dexter,
by Jeff Lindsay
‘Is it criminal?’
‘Of course.’
‘Fair enough. For a thousand bucks I can listen. What do you want me to do?’
‘I want you to murder me.’
Fletch said, ‘Sure.’
—Fletch,
by Gregory Mcdonald
“I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it.”
—The Big Sleep,
by Raymond Chandler
“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.”
—Farewell, My Lovely,
by Raymond Chandler
