I just felt from personal observation that there is nothing more dislocated or alienated than a lifelong military person trying to cope in civilian life. It's like two completely separate planets.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.

Don't be sad that roses have thorns. Be glad that thorns have Roses. Today's the day I worried about yesterday and it didn't happen.

Don't get it right - get it WRITTEN!

I have a kind of old-fashioned, artisan approach.

The first day of the rest of my life.

Spread love and understanding,” Reacher said. “Use force if necessary.

So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job.

I grew up in Birmingham, where they made useful things and made them well.

Writing is showbusiness for shy people. That's how I see it.

That girl had two chances. And both of us let her down.

Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

I think when smallpox was eliminated, the whole world got pretty excited about that because it’s just such a dramatic success.

Writers get exactly the right amount of fame: just enough to get a good table in a restaurant but not enough so that people are constantly interrupting you while you're eating dinner.

Anyone who, for 25 years, has built a career on such tenuous foundations as a high-pitched giggle, a raspberry and a sprinkling of top 'Cs' needs all the friends he can get.

Dad said I would always be "high minded and low waged" from reading too much Ralph Waldo Emerson. Maybe he was right.

Godly fear, faith, and humility is the true threefold cord that can’t easily be broken (see Ecclesiastes 4:12).

There's a moment in time where kids really don't want to hear anything from their parents.

Lord, I'm available to be your ambassador and if there is someone you would like me to speak with today you can bring that person across my path.