The Affair Quotes

“The best fights are the ones you don't have", a wise man once said to me.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“I said nothing. I’m good at saying nothing. I don’t like talking. I could go the rest of my life without saying another word, if I had to.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“He had fallen out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“The third guy was different. He was what you got when you ate squirrels for four generations. Smarter than a rat and tougher than a goat, and jumpier than either one.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“The first day of the rest of my life.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“No one expects a head butt. Humans don’t hit things with their heads. Some inbuilt atavistic instinct says so. A head butt changes the game. It adds a kind of unhinged savagery to the mix. An unprovoked head butt is like bringing a sawed-off shotgun to a knife fight.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“The best fights are the ones you don’t have,”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“They all shared Stan’s personal allegiance to the famous old saying: War is not about dying for your country. It’s about making the other guy die for his.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“Sometimes if you want to know for sure whether the stove is hot, the only way to find out is to touch it.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“Most right-handed people end up walking wide counterclockwise circles, because most right-handed people have left legs fractionally shorter than their right legs. Basic biology and geometry. I avoided that particular peril by stepping to the right of every tenth tree I came to, whether I thought I needed to or not.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“The Pentagon was built because World War Two was coming, and because World War Two was coming it was built without much steel. Steel was needed elsewhere, as always in wartime. Thus the giant building was a monument to the strength and mass of concrete. So much sand was needed for the mix it was dredged right out of the Potomac River, not far from the rising walls themselves. Nearly a million tons of it. The result was extreme solidity.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“On his day of demobilization a lugubrious one-armed, one-eyed brigadier wished him well and then added, apropos of nothing, “Mark my words, Moutier, a great war leaves a country with three armies: an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“You ever notice how the folks who talk loudest about small government always seem to live in the states with the biggest subsidies?”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“There are a lot of them, all around the wsorld, all built a lifetime ago, during the long and spectacular blaze of American military power and self-confidence, when there was nothing we couldn't or wouldn't do. I was a product of that era, but not a part of it. I was nostalgic for something I had never experienced.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“Any day could be the last of life or liberty, so small pleasures were always worth pursuing.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“Rule two: watch his eyes. If they stayed up, he was going to swing. If they dropped down, he was going to kick.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“He said all that needs to happen for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“old enough to show some mileage, young enough to still find some amusement in the world.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“No one expects a head butt. Humans don’t hit things with their heads. Some inbuilt atavistic instinct says so. A head butt changes the game. It adds a kind of unhinged savagery to the mix. An unprovoked head butt is like bringing a sawed-off shotgun to a knife fight. The guy went down like an empty suit.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“He also said the day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin to die.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“Realitatile sunt musafiri nepoftiti in lumea fanteziei.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“You looked angry twenty minutes ago. With the McKinney family.” “That was just a technical problem. Space and time. I didn’t want to be late for dinner. I wasn’t angry, really. Well, not at first. I got a bit frustrated later. You know, mentally. I mean, when there were four of them, I gave them the chance to come back in numbers. And what did they do? They added two more guys. That’s all. They showed up with a total of six. What is that about? It’s deliberate disrespect.” Deveraux said, “I think most people would consider six against one to be fairly respectful.” “But I warned them. I told them they’d need more. I was trying to be fair. But they wouldn’t listen. It was like talking to the Pentagon.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“954009 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“freeze freeze freeze makes me a little self-conscious too. The words come out a little tentative. Almost like a request. But I had with me the greatest conversation-stopper ever made: a pump-action shotgun. At the cost of one unfired shell, I could make the kind of sound that would freeze any three men to any three spots in the world. The most intimidating noise ever heard. Crunch crunch. My ejected shell hit the leaves at my feet and the three guys froze solid. I said, “Now the rifles hit the deck.” Normal voice, normal pitch, normal tone. The sandy-haired guy dropped his rifle first. He was pretty damn quick about it. Then went the older guy, and last of the three came the wiry one. “Stand still now,” I said. “Don’t give me a reason.” Normal voice, normal pitch, normal tone. They stood reasonably still. Their arms came up a little, out from their sides, slowly, and they ended up a small distance from their bodies, where they held them. They spread their fingers. No doubt they spread their toes inside their boots and sneakers and shoes. Anything to appear unarmed and undangerous. I said, “And now you take three big paces backward.” They complied, all three guys, all three taking exaggerated stumbling steps, and all three ending up more than a body’s length from their rifles. I said, “And now you turn around.” Chapter 52 I had never seen any of them before. After the slow spin the older guy had ended up facing me on my left. He was completely unknown to me. He was just a guy, not very significant, a little pouchy and worn. The guy in the middle was the sandy-haired one. He was like the older man would have been, had he grown up twenty years later and”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“You ever notice how the folks who talk loudest about small government always seem to live in the states with the biggest subsidies? Small government would kill them dead.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“you.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“She had all the right parts in all the right proportions.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“And no soldier does more than he has to. No soldier ever has, since Alexander the Great first put his army together. Initiative in the ranks usually ends in tears. Especially where live ammunition is involved. And civilians.”
― Lee Child, The Affair

“But I had with me the greatest conversation-stopper ever made: a pump-action shotgun. At the cost of one unfired shell, I could make the kind of sound that would freeze any three men to any three spots in the world. The most intimidating noise ever heard. Crunch crunch. My ejected shell hit the leaves at my feet and the three guys froze solid.”
― Lee Child, The Affair