“ Know. I get it. Because when I knew but they didn’t know I knew, that was good. But when they knew that I knew but I didn’t know they knew, that was bad. But now that I know they know that I know, and… Barry Eisler
“ You forget the things you want to remember and remember the things you want to forget. Barry Eisler
“ You don’t just childproof your guns, was how he put it. You also gun-proof your child. Barry Eisler
“ When you’ve known someone only briefly, even if intensely, death comes as a shock, but not a particularly long or deep one. After all, there was no time for the person in question to become woven tigh… Barry Eisler
“ We took a cab to the hotel. We looked at each other on the way but neither of us spoke. I checked us in, and when we got to the room, we left the lights off. It seemed natural that we should walk over… Barry Eisler
“ Think about it. Ever look in a closet or under the bed, when you’re alone in the house, to ensure an intruder isn’t hiding there? Now, if you really believed the Man in the Black Ski Mask was lurking… Barry Eisler
“ There was a time when I didn’t seem to need such things, when I would have been amused and perhaps even vaguely disgusted at the notion of living like some sort of psychic vampire, a lingering revenan… Barry Eisler
“ The person who returns from living abroad isn't the same person who left originally... Your outlook changes. You don't take things for granted that you used to. For instance, I noticed in New York tha… Barry Eisler
“ She spun and faced me, one hand on her wounded posterior. Her eyes were wide, her nostrils flared with shock and anger. In my peripheral vision, I saw her weight shift to her back leg, and thought she… Barry Eisler
“ She remembered something her mother had told her when she was a teenager: The boy you date is different from the boy you’re engaged to, the boy you’re engaged to is different from the man you marry, t… Barry Eisler
“ Rationalization was my narcotic. And, as with all drugs, over time, I habituated to mine. I needed more and more to accomplish less and less. Eventually, there was no dose at all that could confer the… Barry Eisler
“ People put out signals—body language, gait, clothes, facial expression, posture, attitude, speech, mannerisms—that can tell you where they’re from, what they do, who they are. Most importantly, do the… Barry Eisler
“ It’s like America, he went on. I mean look at us, we’re always telling ourselves how peace-loving we are. ‘We’re a peace-loving people, we love peace.’ I guess that’s why we spend more on our military… Barry Eisler
“ I wiped water from my face and thought, Time to go. But I remained. Thanks for an interesting evening, she said, after a pause. You’re not a bad guy, for a stalker. I gave her a half smile. That’s wha… Barry Eisler
“ I thought of an expression my father had once told me: Be good to people on your way up. You may meet them again on your way down. Barry Eisler
“ I pulled on a pair of shorts and did two hundred and fifty Hindu push-ups, five hundred Hindu squats, several minutes of neck bridges, front and back, and a variety of other bodyweight calisthenics an… Barry Eisler
“ I felt like Schrödinger’s cat. She would come, or not come. She would take me in, or throw me out. She would forgive me, or tell me to fuck off. And in that narrow, purgatorial space, a feeling crept… Barry Eisler
“ Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light; I would spread the cloths under your feet… Barry Eisler
“ Goddamn it, I thought, at the mention of her name. I just couldn’t get clear of these people. They were like cancer. You think you’ve cut it out, it always comes back. Barry Eisler
“ Boxers wear tape to protect their hands. But you get dependent on the tape, and then you don’t know how to hit someone without it. Even Mike Tyson once broke a hand when he hit another fighter barehan… Barry Eisler
