Quotes from A Wanted Man

Lee Child ·  15 pages

Rating: (48.4K votes)


“Some old guy once said that the meaning of life is that it ends.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Imagine the uproar if the Federal government tried to make everyone wear a radio transmitter around their neck so we can keep track of their movements. But people happily carry their cell phones in their purses and pockets.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“A handgun at two hundred feet is the same thing as crossing your fingers and making a wish.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“It gives me some kind of chance to survive the night."

"How are those better odds? If you come back with me, you're guaranteed to survive the night."

"No," Reacher said. "If I come back with you, I'm guaranteed to die of shame.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“And most people stick to underwear from their country of origin.” “Do they?” “As a general rule. It’s a comfort issue, literally and metaphorically. And an intimacy issue. It’s a big step, putting on foreign underwear. Like betrayal, or emigration.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man



“Foreign, for sure. But we all bleed the same color red. No doubt about that. The truth of that statement was plain to see. Reacher put the guy out of misery. A single shot, close range, behind the ear. An unnecessary round expended, but good manners had a price”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“At one point they said they were heading to”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“an average infantryman records one enemy fatality for every fifteen thousand combat rounds expended.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Resolute, responsible, determined, knowledgeable, and perceptive”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“As a general rule. it's a comfort issue, literally and metaphorically. And intimacy issue. It's a big step, putting on foreign underwear. Like betrayal, or emigration.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man



“Does this thing have fast forward?” Sorenson asked. “Hold down the shift key,” the kid said.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Suppose twenty years ago Congress had proposed a law saying every citizen had to wear a radio transponder around his neck, all day and all night, so the government could track him wherever he went. Can you imagine the outrage? But instead the citizens went right ahead and did it to themselves. In their pockets and purses, not around their necks, but the outcome is the same.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Reacher remembered a line from an old song: Set the controls for the heart of the sun.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Reacher prowled the hallway, his gun stiff-armed way out in front of him, his torso jerking violently left and right from the hips, like a crazy disco dance. The house-storming shuffle.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Reacher killed the lights and squeezed back through the slit in the plastic. He crossed the empty”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man



“Iowa had a quarter of America’s best-grade topsoil all to itself, and therefore it was at the head of the list when it came to corn and soybeans and hogs and cattle.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“I bet he burned real well. All that fat? I bet he went up like a lamb chop on a barbecue.” King said nothing. Reacher said, “You would too, probably. You’re not much thinner. Is it a genetic thing? Was your momma fat as well as ugly?” No”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“I’m wide open to ideas, Agent”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Reacher said, ‘Do you have an accurate headcount?’
McQueen said, ‘Twenty-four tonight, not including me.’
‘Six left, then.’
‘Is that all? Jesus.’
‘I’ve been here at least twenty minutes.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Perhaps he would glance down and see that he was doing 76 miles an hour, and he would see that 76 squared was 5,776, which ended in 76, where it started, which made 76 an automorphic number, one of only two below 100, the other being 25, whose square was 625, whose square was 390,625, which”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man



“They may never be able to prove it.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“volume up high and played the recording one”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Both had been taken out of front-line service after the Gulf War in 1991. Neither had proved sufficiently durable. Their task had been to haul Abrams battle tanks around. Battle tanks were built for tank battles, not for driving from A to B on public roads. Roads got ruined, tracks wore out, between-maintenance hours were wasted unproductively. Hence tank transporters. But Abrams tanks weighed more than sixty tons, and wear and tear on the HETs was prodigious. Back to the drawing board. The old-generation hardware was relegated to lighter duties. But”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Why don’t you live anywhere?” “Do you have a house?” “Of course.” “Is it a pure unalloyed pleasure?” “Not entirely.” “So there’s your answer.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“Reacher had no patience for people who claimed that y was a vowel.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man



About the author

Lee Child
Born place: The United Kingdom
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