Quotes from Purity in Death

J.D. Robb ·  355 pages

Rating: (21.2K votes)


“Man. God. Roarke.
An interesting and flattering lineup.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“You tell Roarke you were tagging me for this? Or is he going to get riled up so I have to kick his ass again?"

"Oh, is that what you were doing when you had to be carried out of the room unconscious?"

"I like to remember it that I was just getting my second wind.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“Justice doesn’t hide behind anonymity. It doesn’t operate without rules of conduct.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“Peabody, with me."

She waited until they were back in her office. "Don't hover over McNab like that."

"Sir?"

"You hover over him, you're going to make him think you're worried."

"I am worried. The twenty-four-"

"Worry all you want, dump on me if you need to. But don't let him see it. He's starting to fray, and he's trying hard not to show it. You try just as hard not to show it. If you need to vent, go out there on the kitchen terrace. Scream your lungs out."

"Is that what you do?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes I kick inanimate objects. Sometimes I jump Roarke and have jungle sex. The last," she said after a beat, "is not an option for you."

"But I think it would really make me feel better, and be a more productive member of the investigative team."

"Good, humor is good. Get me coffee.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“Don't wear those trousers with that shirt. What are you thinking?"

"I'm going to a bust, not a party."

"That's no reason not to look your best. Let's see, what's the well-dressed cop wearing these days to take down a major terrorist organization? You can't go wrong with basic black."

"Is this a joke?" she asked as he selected another shirt.

"Good fashion sense is never a joke." He handed her the shirt, slid a finger down the dent in her chin. "But it's good to see you smile again, Lieutenant. Oh, and wear the black boots, not the brown."

"I don't have any black boots."

He reached in, pulled out a pair of sturdy black leather. "You do now.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death



“She pushed back from the table. "I've got some stuff I need to do."

"The Walking Dead said there was chocolate cake."

"Jamie," Roarke said mildly.

"Sorry," Jamie said reluctantly. "Mister Walking Dead, also known as Summerset, said there was chocolate cake."

"And if you eat it all, I'll kill you in your sleep. Then you can join The Walking Dead. Roarke, I need to talk to you."

As they started out, she heard Jamie ask: "Think they're gonna go do it?" And heard the quick slap of Feeney's hand on the teenaged skull.

"Are we going to go do it?" Roarke grabbed her hand.

"Want me to have Feeney knock you, too?"

"I'm a bit quicker than Jamie yet. But I take that to mean we're not going back upstairs for a fast tumble."

"How many times a day do you think about sex?"

He gave her a considering look. "Would that be actively thinking of it, or just having the concept of it lurking there, like Jamie's invisible document?”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“Look. I'm your expert consultant for a rather pathetic monetary wage, and under that agreement I have the option of selecting a technical assistant. He's mine."

She blew out a breath, paced to the window. Paced back. "Not just yours. It makes him mine, too. I don't know how to deal with a teenaged type person."

"Ah, well, I'd say you'd deal with him as you deal with everyone else. You order him around, and if he argues or doesn't jump quickly enough you freeze his blood with one of those vicious looks you're so good at and verbally abuse him. It always works so well for you."

"You think so?"

"There, see." He cupped her chin. "There it is now. I can actually feel my blood running cold.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“You'll stay in the surveillance vehicle and assist McNab. Any arguments from you, Detective?" she said, looking at McNab.

"No. No, sir, Lieutenant." He patted Peabody on the back. "You okay, honey?"

"No honeys!" Eve pulled at her hair. "There are no honeys on an op, for sweet Christ's sake. Keep it up, just keep it up, and I'm having one of you transferred to Queens.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“It must be really rough, forced to put on a beautiful dress, stick some diamonds or whatever all over you and choke down champagne and lobster croquettes beside the most beautiful man ever born, on or off planet. I don't know how you get through the day with that weight on your shoulders, Dallas."

"Shut up."

"And here I am, free to squeeze into the local pizza place with McNab where we will split the pie and the check." Peabody shook her head slowly. The dark bowl of hair under her cap swayed in conceit. "I can't tell you how guilty I feel knowing that."

"You looking for trouble, Peabody?"

"No, sir." Peabody did her best to look pious. "Just offering my support and sympathy at this difficult time.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“She'd barely stepped in, taken that first breath of cool, clean air, when Summerset, Roarke's majordomo, appeared in the foyer like an unwelcome vision.

"Yes, I missed the dinner," she said before he could open his mouth. "Yes, I'm a miserable failure as a wife and a poor example of a human being. I have no class, no courtesy, and no sense of decorum. I should be dragged naked into the streets and stoned for my sins."

Summerset raised one steel gray eyebrow. "Well, that seems to cover it."

"Good, saves time." She started up the stairs. "Is he back?"

"Just."

A little annoyed she'd given him no opportunity to criticize, he frowned after her. He'd have to be quicker next time.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death



“She could see the tempest in his eyes, swarming in the blue of them with a kind of primal violence that made the breath catch in her throat and her pulse pound in response.

"I need you." His fingers dived into her hair, dragging it back from her face, fisting again. "You can't know what kind of need is in me for you. There are times, do you understand me, I don't want it. I don't want this raging inside me. It won't stop."

His mouth crushed down on hers, and she tasted that need, the fierce and focused intensity of it. And the greed, the desperation of it.

She gave herself over to it without hesitation. Because he was wrong, as he was very rarely wrong. She understood the need, and she understood the frustration of knowing it wouldn't be controlled.

The same war waged in her.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“Abracadabra," Roarke stated, and opened it.

"Now that's more like it." Hunkered down beside him, Eve studied the neat stacks of cash. "This is how he stayed out of a cage so long. No credit, no e-transfers. Cash on the line. And a file box, loaded with discs and vids."

"Best of all." Roarke reached in, took out a PPC. "His personal palm, very likely uninfected and chock-full of interesting data."

"Let's load it up, get it in." She pulled out her memo book.

"What're you doing?"

"Logging the entry. I better not see any of that green stuff or those baubles go into your pockets, Ace."

"Now I'm offended." He straightened, brushed at his shirt. "If I nipped anything, you can bet your ass you wouldn't see me do it.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“He held up a hand. "You've come perilously close to being written up for insubordination, Lieutenant. I expect better control from you, and have rarely had the need to remind you of it."

"Yes, sir."

"Moreover, I find myself insulted both on a personal and professional level that you assumed I had or would approve an asinine schedule that pulls you off a priority."

"I apologize, Commander, and can only offer the weak excuse that any and all contact with Lee Chang results in my temporary insanity."

"Understood." Whitney turned the disc over in his hand. "It surprises me, Dallas, that you didn't shove this down his throat."

"Actually, sir, I had another orifice in mind."

His lips quirked, just slightly. Then he snapped the disc in two, just as she had.

"Thank you, Commander."

"Let's get this damn circus over with, so we can both get back to work.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“As Eve strode down the bright white corridor of the dead, Peabody hustled beside her.

"Man, this place is always a little spooky, but this is beyond. You know how you half expect one of these bags to sit up and grab at you?"

"No. Wait out here. If one of them makes a run for it, give me a call."

"I don't think that's particularly funny." And watching the still black bags warily, Peabody took her post at the door.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death


“I have reason to believe vigilantes grow to like their work. That power, unchecked, will corrupt its own agenda. That violence, given impunity and approval, breeds more.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Purity in Death



About the author

J.D. Robb
Born place: in Silver Spring, Maryland, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“It all begins and ends in the same place, doesn't it? Conor and me in Ballyutogue. We all come home eventually.”
― Leon Uris, quote from Trinity


“أعتقد يا والدي أن أهم صفات الإنسان المحببة أن يتميز بالخيال، فهذا يجعل الناس قادرين على وضع أنفسهم في موضع الآخرين، ومن ثم يشعرون بالعطف والحنان والفهم، وهذه الصفة -الخيال- يجب أن تزرع وتغرس في قلوب الصغار. لكن للأسف كان بيت جون جرير يطمس على الفور أية بادرة تظهر من هذه الصفة. الصفة الوحيدة المسموح لها أن تسود وتسيطر هي صفة الشعور بالواجب، أعتقد أنه من المكروه والمرذول أن تجعل الأطفال ينغمسون انغماسا كليا في تشرب هذه الصفة الأخيرة، لأنه من الواجب ومن الضروري أن يتصرفوا ويفعلوا كل شيء من خلال الحب والاقتناع.

انتظر حتى ترى ذلك الملجأ الذي أنوي أن أترأسه، هذا هو حلمي المفضل ولعبتي الذهنية الأولى عندما أذهب لأنام. لقد خططت لكل شيء حتى أصغر التفاصيل، مثل نظام الواجبات والملابس والمذاكرة والتسلية والعقاب. أيتامي سيكونون كغيرهم أشقياء، لكنهم -على أية حال- سيكونون في غاية السعادة.”
― Jean Webster, quote from Daddy-Long-Legs


“I didn’t look to the shore much after this first long and memorable glimpse. I looked up at Heaven and her court of mythical creatures fixed forever in the all powerful and inscrutable stars. Ink black was the night beyond them, and they so like jewels that old poetry came back to me, the sound even of hymns sung only by men.”
― Anne Rice, quote from Pandora


“She conceived of life as a road down which one traveled, an easy enough road through a broad country, and that one's destination was there from the very beginning, a measured distance away, standing in the ordinary light like some plain house where one went in and was greeted by respectable people and was shown to a room where everything one had ever lost or put aside was gathered together, waiting.”
― Marilynne Robinson, quote from Housekeeping


“It was on this trip that Faye acquired a new suitor by the name of Homer Simpson.”
― Nathanael West, quote from Miss Lonelyhearts / The Day of the Locust


Interesting books

The Virgin Suicides
(195.4K)
The Virgin Suicides
by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Lord of the Rings
(462K)
The Lord of the Ring...
by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Feast for Crows
(512.3K)
A Feast for Crows
by George R.R. Martin
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
(85.7K)
Blood Meridian, or t...
by Cormac McCarthy
The Age of Innocence
(120.4K)
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
Wonder
(487.3K)
Wonder
by R.J. Palacio

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.