The General's Daughter Quotes

“Basically, all women are nurturers and healers, and all men are mental patients to varying degrees.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Panic---a deep abiding, free-floating anxiety, often without any reason or logical basis.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“I enjoy the presence of a woman in the house for brief periods of time. They fall into two categories: the organizers and the slobs. There’s probably a third category—the naggers, who try to get you to do things, but I’ve never run into one of those. Oddly, I have no preference regarding oganizers or slobs, as long as they don’t try to pick my clothes for me. Basically, all women are nurturers and healers, and all men are mental patients to varying degrees. It works fine if people stick to their fated roles. But nobody does.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Somehow, amid all the sophistication and diversions of this world, we forgot the basics: take care of business at home first, and never betray your blood.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“It’s a problem, you know, Paul, dealing with stupid people. You project your own intelligence and rationality onto a person who is a complete idiot, and he lets you down.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“The American dream was not supposed to look like this, and when men went off the war, too often other men came in the night to the bedroom at the back of the long, narrow trailers. In fact, I had lived there and had gone off to war, and someone took of my place in the bed and took of my young wife. But that was few wars ago, and so much has happened since , that the only lingering bitterness left is that the bastard also took my dog.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Well, the more I learn, the less motivation I can find for Colonel Moore to kill his subordinate. On the other hand, I see that other people could have strong motives.”
Kent looked exasperated, and he said, “Paul, I understand what you’re doing up to a point, and so will everyone else. But you’ve passed that point, and if you don’t arrest Moore now and he turns out to be the killer, and the FBI arrests him, then you look really stupid.”
“I know that, Bill. But if I do arrest him and he’s not the killer, I look worse than stupid.”
“Show some balls.”
“Fuck you.”
“Hey! You’re speaking to a superior officer.”
“Fuck you, sir.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Many sons and daughters who have these feelings against their father, according to this psychologist, engage in promiscuous behavior, drunkenness, gambling, and other antisocial acts that they know will embarrass the authority figure in his world.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“There is something uniquely ugly and depressing about commercial strips in the old South, great expanses of parking lots, motels, fast-food”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“The trooper said to her, “You he careful, now.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“I checked my speed, but I was only doing ten mph over the limit, which in Georgia means you’re obstructing the flow of traffic.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“the FBI philosophy is, ‘Whatever makes any other law enforcement agency or institution look bad makes us look better.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“We’re all criminally insane, but most of us have good control mechanisms, internal and external. Remove the controls and you have a killer.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“The word “personnel” may seem superfluous, but Army regulations prohibit brevity and common sense.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“You have very little rape experience. Now, here we have a rope homicide,”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“When you’re undercover, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades. I’ve been everything from a cook to a chemical warfare specialist—though in the Army that’s not such a big difference.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“I think we opened a Pandora’s box, took out a can of worms, and threw it at a hornet’s nest.” “You can say that again.” But I didn’t. I said, “We’ve been cut loose.” I thought a moment, then added, “But I think we can go it alone.” “I guess we have no choice. But I still want to know about West Point.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Mr. Brenner, from the very beginning, you chose to charge through here like Grant took Richmond, with no regard to protocol or other people’s sensibilities.” “That’s how Grant took Richmond, Colonel.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Beaumont is an antebellum relic, the former home of the Beaumont clan, who still exist in the county. Beaumont House escaped Sherman’s March to the Sea, being not in the direct path of the march, but it had been looted and vandalized by Yankee stragglers. The locals will tell you that all the women in the house had been raped, but, in fact, the local guidebook says the Beaumonts fled a few steps ahead of the Yankees.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“paintings. I recognized “The Rape of the Sabines,” by Da Bologna, which is one of the few classical paintings I can name.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“The Rape of the Sabines,” by Da Bologna, which is one of the few classical paintings I can name. Sometimes I wonder about myself.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“fast-food places, discount stores, car dealers, and what passes for nightclubs hereabouts.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Yet, there is something about a person’s eyes. . . they speak their own language, from the heart and soul. They speak love, grief, hate, innocence, and guilt. They speak the truth even as the person is lying.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Geniuses don’t seem to have much tolerance for people who annoy them, or hinder them, and they tend to think they are not subject to the same rules of behavior as the mass of humanity. They are often unhappy and impatient people, and they can also be sociopaths, and sometimes psychopaths who”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“I know who didn’t kill her.” “Don’t”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter

“Psychology is a soft weapon but you can take out
more enemy battalions with leaflets and radio broadcasts than with high explosives.”
― Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter