The Devil's Punchbowl

When everything is at risk, good judgment, not haste, makes the difference between life and death. Panic is the enemy.

Let me tell you a secret, Caitlin. We’re still in the cave. It’s just bigger, and we wear nicer clothes. We make alliances and try to be civil, we save the weak instead of leaving them out in the cold to die. . .

The Terrible Truth is that brutality is part of human nature, and all the laws in the world can't neuter it.

because the beautiful way he speaks in public is just another cloak he wears to hide what lies beneath his skin,

I’ve learned that most people don’t want change, even when it’s in their best interest. We pay lip service to ideals, but we live by expediency and by tribal prejudice. Accepting this hypocrisy has nearly broken me.

the first rush of euphoria that comes with the knowledge that life is granting you the grace of a dream realized.

We’re still in the cave. It’s just bigger, and we wear nicer clothes. We make alliances and try to be civil, we save the weak instead of leaving them out in the cold to die. But guys like Sands, Quinn, Po…they play by the ancient rules. To them, life is a zero-sum game. You win or lose, live or die. And the most important rule of all is, you take everything you can, when you can, until somebody draws a line and says, ‘No more.

Most Americans are raised never to give up, and in the South that credo is practically a religion.

fathers and brothers who would readily kill to avenge those they should have loved far better when the person was alive.

No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that’s in the right and keeps on a comin’. —Captain Bill McDonald, Texas Ranger

If physicists want to develop a time machine, they should explore fear. Fear dilates and compresses time without limit. For desperate people awaiting rescue, every instant stretches into unendurable agony; for those awaiting death by cancer, the earth spins relentlessly, shortening the days until they pass like fanned pages in a book. Trapped in our bodies, perception is all, and the engine of perception is hunger for life.

You said you had enough evidence to convict Jonathan Sands of money laundering on your own.” “That’s correct.” “I’d like to see that evidence.” “I’d like a chocolate chip cookie without the chips.” “Mr. Cage—

While Sands's eyes flicker with private mirth, the evil that Tim hinted at fills my soul like a squid's ink.

When you write a book, you have total control of the universe and everyone in it.

Nothing was what you thought it was, because no one was who they pretended to be.