Top 80 Nelson DeMille Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “Most of my books are about contemporary subjects, and the world changes so fast that I’m lucky when events haven’t overtaken the book I’m writing at the moment.”

— Nelson DeMille

52. “Kate had never been married, so she had no way of knowing if I was a normal husband. This has been good for our marriage.”

— Nelson DeMille

53. “Lawrence Kelter is an exciting new novelist, who reminds me of an early Robert Ludlum.”

— Nelson DeMille

54. “I thought to myself, what is everyone’s worst fear? Nuclear terrorism in America.”

— Nelson DeMille

55. “Your website shows only one booking in that time period.” “Really? I need to update that. So, that’s the price.” “You drive a hard bargain, Mr. MacCormick.” “Captain.” “Captain.” He glanced around. “Let’s get a table.” “Why?” “There are some other details you need to know.”

— Nelson DeMille

56. “It’s good to stay as close to real life as you can, and then kind of dress it up.”

— Nelson DeMille

57. “Ernest Hemingway was the author I drew inspiration from.”

— Nelson DeMille

58. “I think it’s more difficult now to write a spy thriller with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many authors have tried, but few have succeeded in capturing the interest of readers.”

— Nelson DeMille

59. “Trying to improve on anthrax is like trying to improve on gunpowder. Anthrax is easy to propagate, easy to handle, it diffuses nicely into the air, kills slowly enough for the infected population to spread it around, and cripples as many victims as it kills, causing a collapse of the enemy’s health care system.”

— Nelson DeMille

60. “What happened between us has impacted a lot of people around us whom we care for and who care for us, so I think we should try to be civil to each other and make life easier and less awkward for everyone.”

— Nelson DeMille

61. “An Englishman once said that he found it easier to be a member of a club than of the human race because the bylaws were shorter, and he knew all the members personally. That sounds about right.”

— Nelson DeMille

62. “There are Mafia families that have bought magnificent houses on the North Shore, although not yet the great estates because they don’t want that kind of high profile.”

— Nelson DeMille

63. “Tutte le strade conducono a Roma. All roads lead to Rome.”

— Nelson DeMille

64. “I have no plans to use the Internet as the main subject of a novel.”

— Nelson DeMille

65. “Confrontational is when I pull my gun. Argumentative is when I pull the trigger.”

— Nelson DeMille

66. “There are a lot of books about the passing of the English aristocracy, but the vast majority of Long Islanders don’t understand their own backyard. It’s a private preserve.”

— Nelson DeMille

67. “He understood, too, that they had not necessarily been chosen to succeed, or even to live. But they’d been chosen to find the Holy Grail that was within themselves. And that’s what this was always about; the Grail was a phantom and the journey was inward, into their hearts and souls.”

— Nelson DeMille

68. “The good news was that the streets were litter-free, maybe because no one had anything to throw away.”

— Nelson DeMille

69. “And they looked like poor fishermen. But this was Cuba, where everyone had a second job.”

— Nelson DeMille

70. “You can get away with a bad decision, but not a bad mistake.”

— Nelson DeMille

71. “The short-timers, who’d gone through hell without even a small pee in their pants, were all jittery that something was going to happen before they boarded the freedom bird home. I mean, after you’ve cheated death for so long, you become paranoid, sure that death had just remembered you were leaving.”

— Nelson DeMille

72. “What do you do, Jack, when any move you make is the wrong move?” “You hope the other guy makes a bad move.”

— Nelson DeMille

73. “Old guys have seen too much, and they trust no one.”

— Nelson DeMille

74. “Most accidents, I’m convinced, are God’s way of getting rid of stupid people. Or if you believe in Darwinism, you wonder why there are any stupid people left in the world. Well, I guess they can reproduce before they remove themselves from the gene pool.”

— Nelson DeMille

75. “On the subject of motive, there are, generally speaking, six major motives for murder. Ready? They are profit, revenge, jealousy, concealment of a crime, avoidance of humiliation or disgrace, and homicidal mania.”

— Nelson DeMille

76. “Well, I was on the slippery slope into the abyss of love, companionship, and happiness – and you know where that leads. Misery.”

— Nelson DeMille

77. “Cursed are the peacemakers for they make the next war harder than the last.”

— Nelson DeMille

78. “He suddenly rushed me and somehow managed to smash his balls into my fist.”

— Nelson DeMille

79. “Motive is tricky, and you can’t ascribe a motive and then try to make it fit the crime.”

— Nelson DeMille

80. “My sister, Lynne, has relocated with her A-hole husband to the West Coast – wherever that is.”

— Nelson DeMille

81. “Sometimes people rationalize their behavior. How about the Americans who gave atomic bomb secrets to the Russians? They were people who said they did it out of conviction – so one side wouldn’t have all the power.”

— Nelson DeMille

82. “Sometimes I think being a cop is less dangerous than being married.”

— Nelson DeMille

83. “You’re smarter than you look. Did you ever have anti-terrorist training?” “Sort of. I was married.”

— Nelson DeMille

84. “Job happiness is directly proportional to the distance you are from the home office.”

— Nelson DeMille