Top 500 James Patterson Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Cats are like Baptists. You know they raise hell, but you can never catch them at it.”

— James Patterson

52. “Your mind creates your reality. If you expect nothing, you open up the universe to give you options. If you expect the worst, you usually get it.”

— James Patterson

53. “Life is hard, and a lot of people come home tired from work. If they’re gonna spend half an hour reading, they want some entertainment and a sense of achievement. So that’s what I give them. That’s all I’m trying to do. Is that really so wrong?”

— James Patterson

54. “The writing in Mission to Paris, sentence after sentence, page after page, is dazzling. If you are a John le Carr fan, this is definitely a novel for you.”

— James Patterson

55. “Pain is a message, and you can choose to ignore that message.”

— James Patterson

56. “Why, the little Voice inside my head, of course. You mean you don’t have one? I did.”

— James Patterson

57. “I only have two speeds. Hostile and Smart-Aleck. Your choice.”

— James Patterson

58. “If you’re going around in circles, maybe you’re cutting corners.”

— James Patterson

59. “Fear is not the answer, not ever.”

— James Patterson

60. “Then I went to bed and cried into my pillow. I wasn’t sad, not at all. It was just so beautiful to have an intense feeling and the right words at the same time. What are we but our stories?”

— James Patterson

61. “What do you think I am, some kind of idiot?” Attention! Do not answer that question! I repeat, do NOT answer that question!”

— James Patterson

62. “Bad stuff does happen somtimes, Nicolas. Always rememnber that, but remember that you have to move on, somehow. You just pick up your head and stare at something beautiful like the sky, or the ocean, and you move the hell on.”

— James Patterson

63. “Victory belongs to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.”

— James Patterson

64. “There are thousands of people who don’t like what I do. Fortunately, there are millions who do.”

— James Patterson

65. “Well, I don’t know. Mostly I just suck up what life throws my way, stomp on it, and then keep going. I don’t dwell much on what I am or how I got this way. It just is. I just am. I’m Max, and whatever form I take, it’s good enough for me.”

— James Patterson

66. “I believe we should spend less time worrying about the quantity of books children read and more time introducing them to quality books that will turn them on to the joy of reading and turn them into lifelong readers.”

— James Patterson

67. “The whole duty of humanity, from a Christian perspective is: ‘To know God and to show God.’”

— James Patterson

68. “I grew up in a house full of women: my mother, grandmother, three sisters, and two female cats. And I still have the buzz of their conversations in my head. As an adult, I have more female friends than male ones: I just love the way that women talk.”

— James Patterson

69. “I choose you, Max. -Fang.”

— James Patterson

70. “You will never stumble while on your knees.”

— James Patterson

71. “You stand out like a fart in a church.”

— James Patterson

72. “Normal behavior, therefore, is when we collectively believe that the circumstances justify the behavior. Likewise, abnormal behavior is when we don’t.”

— James Patterson

73. “Dead Max was the biggest oxymoron in history.”

— James Patterson

74. “My choices were to either give in and let them kill all of us or fight back with everything I had. I chose the second one, ’cause I’m just funny that way.”

— James Patterson

75. “Never underestimate the power of funny, it moves mountains.”

— James Patterson

76. “WARNING If you dare to read this story, you become part of the Experiment.”

— James Patterson

77. “The act of laughing releases some nice chemical into your brain, you feel good and it’s free.”

— James Patterson

78. “What is a lie? It’s a distortion of reality, presented as reality.”

— James Patterson

79. “Purple is such a twisted, complex color – it conveys the passion of red, the sadness of blue, the depravity of black. Purple is neither happy nor sad. It is pain and despair but longing, too – fiery desire, beaten and bruised but struggling onward, determined to overcome, to move forward rather than retreat.”

— James Patterson

80. “Who but the devil lives like a king in the middle of hell.”

— James Patterson

81. “To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” – Theodore Roosevelt.”

— James Patterson

82. “Am I tough? Am I strong? Am I hard-core? Absolutely. Did I whimper with pathetic delight when I sank my teeth into my hot fried-chicken sandwich? You betcha.”

— James Patterson

83. “Sometimes when you’re at your most certain, that’s when everything you know is wrong.”

— James Patterson

84. “We all make choices. We all have to live with them.”

— James Patterson

85. “Every journey begins with one step.”

— James Patterson

86. “I offered to pee on him, but they said no.”

— James Patterson

87. “Because now, the magic is everywhere.”

— James Patterson

88. “Nowhere will you meet more interesting people than in books.”

— James Patterson

89. “Another day. Get up and face it.”

— James Patterson

90. “Fang: When do I get out of here? Max: They say a week. Fang: So, like, tomorrow? Max: That’s what I’m thinking.”

— James Patterson

91. “What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, and world destruction?”

— James Patterson

92. “The actor Danny Kaye used to say, “Life is a great big canvas. Throw all the paint you can at it.” I like that thought. More important, I try to live by it as much as I can. I.”

— James Patterson

93. “Regret is a waste of time.”

— James Patterson

94. “She sucks in her breath and lets the flames race along the comforter until they lick her and swallow her whole.”

— James Patterson

95. “He landed 10 feet below with a sickening crunch-i’m guessing his enhancements didn’t allow him to bounce back up like a ball. we call that a design flaw.”

— James Patterson

96. “You can’t tell which way the train went by looking at the tracks.”

— James Patterson

97. “Homework is a term that means grown up imposed yet self-afflicting torture.”

— James Patterson

98. “It’s been said that love finds you when you’re ready.”

— James Patterson

99. “And there I was, pretty as heck, brown eyes, a few freckles, fashion challenged, and a bad attitude. Max II.”

— James Patterson

100. “Well, I get under people’s skins. It’s a gift I have, what can I say?”

— James Patterson