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1 " I want to disabuse people of the idea that knowledge is power. Knowing how to get to Detroit is not the same thing as having the bus fare. "
― Andrew Vachss
2 " Fear is an enemy that can be killed only at close range. The closest range of all is intimacy. The deeper the fear is embedded in one’s spirit, the more vulnerable it is. "
― Andrew Vachss , Haiku
3 " If a train is coming at you, closing your eyes won't save you ... but if you look right at it, you at least have a chance to jump. "
― Andrew Vachss , The Weight
4 " Camouflage doesn't help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle. "
― Andrew Vachss , False Allegations (Burke, #9)
5 " It's the family you choose that counts. "
6 " Family' is not just a biological word, it's an an operative one. "
7 " If love would die along with death, this life wouldn't be so hard. "
8 " From the very second that two people sat together around a fire in the forest, there was another human out there who felt better in the dark. "
― Andrew Vachss , Flood (Burke, #1)
9 " People who don't have much get ugly about giving up the little they have left. "
10 " You want proof evolution is for real, don’t waste your time with fossils; just check out the New York City rat. They started out as immigrants, stowaways in some ship’s cargo hold. Only the survivors got to breed, and they’ve been improving with every new litter. Smarter, faster, stronger. Getting ready to rule. Manhattan wouldn’t be the first island they took over. "
― Andrew Vachss , Another Life (Burke, #18)
11 " Stealing to eat ain’t criminal—stealing to be rich is. "
― Andrew Vachss , A Bomb Built in Hell
12 " Most investigators don't even know what the word means. You stop the cops from using informants and the only crimes they'd ever solve would be those by deranged postal workers who come to work once too often. "
13 " Cats are the lap-dancers of the animal world. Soon as you stop shelling out, they move on, find another lap. They're furry little sociopaths. Pretty and slick -- in love with themselves. When's the last time you saw a seeing-eye cat? "
― Andrew Vachss , Safe House (Burke, #10)
14 " A dog is like a person—he needs a job and a family to be what he’s meant to be. "
15 " A free press doesn't mean it's not a tame press. "
16 " The worst place to be is in the middle. When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. "
― Andrew Vachss , Footsteps of the Hawk (Burke, #8)
17 " The more bullets flying, the less accurate each individual slug has to be. "
18 " That’s Manhattan today—all the money goes up top, while the infrastructure wastes away from neglect. The famous skyline is a cheap trick now, a sleight-of-hand to draw your eye from the truth, as illusory as a bodybuilder with osteoporosis. "
― Andrew Vachss , Mask Market (Burke #16)
19 " The goal of a true family is not that their children follow in their footsteps, but that their children surpass them in all ways. "
20 " The Bowery station on the J line is what happens to a neighborhood once politicians realize the people who live there don’t vote. "
― Andrew Vachss , Terminal (Burke, #17)
