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Top 25 Stephen Hunter Quotes (2025 Update)

Stephen Hunter Quote: “I was in a delirium of destruction, as if the body were an insult to the philosophy of my life, and only in destroying it could I reclaim my sanity.”

1. “I was in a delirium of destruction, as if the body were an insult to the philosophy of my life, and only in destroying it could I reclaim my sanity.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Three men at McAlester State Penitentiary had larger penises than Lamar Pye, but all were black and therefore, by Lamar’s own figuring, hardly human at all.”

2. “Three men at McAlester State Penitentiary had larger penises than Lamar Pye, but all were black and therefore, by Lamar’s own figuring, hardly human at all.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “There is a paradox at the core of penology, and from it derives the thousand ills and afflictions of the prison system. It is that not only the worst of the young are sent to prison, but the best – that is, the proudest, the bravest, the most daring, the most enterprising and the most undefeated of the poor. There starts the horror. – Norman Mailer’s introduction to In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Henry Abbott No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man.”

3. “There is a paradox at the core of penology, and from it derives the thousand ills and afflictions of the prison system. It is that not only the worst of the young are sent to prison, but the best – that is, the proudest, the bravest, the most daring, the most enterprising and the most undefeated of the poor. There starts the horror. – Norman Mailer’s introduction to In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Henry Abbott No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man. – Peter Townsend, “Behind Blue Eyes.”

4. “No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man. – Peter Townsend, “Behind Blue Eyes.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Yeats said, ‘Men of action, when they lose all belief, believe only in action.”

5. “Yeats said, ‘Men of action, when they lose all belief, believe only in action.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “In ‘Beowulf,’ director Robert Zemeckis uses a technique called ‘motion capture’ to conjure fantastical things, angles into action and sweeping vistas to stun your eyes and take your breath away. But what he hasn’t mastered and what the technique can’t do is this: emotion capture.”

6. “In ‘Beowulf,’ director Robert Zemeckis uses a technique called ‘motion capture’ to conjure fantastical things, angles into action and sweeping vistas to stun your eyes and take your breath away. But what he hasn’t mastered and what the technique can’t do is this: emotion capture.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “You know that easy money, stupid people, and hard times have a way of creating misery.”

7. “You know that easy money, stupid people, and hard times have a way of creating misery.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “The worst moment was always taps. It didn’t matter if the bugler played it well or poorly, in tune or out; there was something in the mournful ache of the music, and how it spoke of men dying before their time for something they only vaguely understood and being only vaguely appreciated by the people on whose behalf they died, that made it hurt so much.”

8. “The worst moment was always taps. It didn’t matter if the bugler played it well or poorly, in tune or out; there was something in the mournful ache of the music, and how it spoke of men dying before their time for something they only vaguely understood and being only vaguely appreciated by the people on whose behalf they died, that made it hurt so much.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “But shooting a man takes one of two things: an overwhelming fear of one’s own death, which Nick did not have in the least; or conviction. It turned out he lacked this component as well.”

9. “But shooting a man takes one of two things: an overwhelming fear of one’s own death, which Nick did not have in the least; or conviction. It turned out he lacked this component as well.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “A man may lie to his psychiatrist, his doctor, his wife, his employer, to God and to Mom, but his teeth tell all;.”

10. “A man may lie to his psychiatrist, his doctor, his wife, his employer, to God and to Mom, but his teeth tell all;.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Having a better and more productive life than my monster father has been my most significant accomplishment.”

11. “Having a better and more productive life than my monster father has been my most significant accomplishment.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Some are born jerks” she said, “some have jerkhood thrust upon them, and some mature into rich and vibrant jerks. You are all three.”

12. “Some are born jerks” she said, “some have jerkhood thrust upon them, and some mature into rich and vibrant jerks. You are all three.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “The public library was more accommodating;.”

13. “The public library was more accommodating;.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “You are the most contrary man I ever met. If someone handed you a glass of free beer that was nine-tenths full, you’d cry over the missing tenth.”

14. “You are the most contrary man I ever met. If someone handed you a glass of free beer that was nine-tenths full, you’d cry over the missing tenth.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Our Director had a vision, Sheriff Swagger. He envisioned a scientific national police force, incorruptible, untainted by ego, vanity, and politics. Alas, as we have learned, that also meant untainted by experience, toughness, cunning, and marksmanship. Lawyers make poor gunfighters.”

15. “Our Director had a vision, Sheriff Swagger. He envisioned a scientific national police force, incorruptible, untainted by ego, vanity, and politics. Alas, as we have learned, that also meant untainted by experience, toughness, cunning, and marksmanship. Lawyers make poor gunfighters.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “And then there are the Germans. Do you know, they form words by just sticking them together, so that their word for ‘Gatling gun’ literally translates into ‘mechanicaldeviceshootingwithoutcockingrifle?’ The words get longer still. No word is too long for a German because it’s quite impossible to bore a German. You cannot entertain a Norwegian, you cannot bore a German, and you cannot educate an American or a chimpanzee.”

16. “And then there are the Germans. Do you know, they form words by just sticking them together, so that their word for ‘Gatling gun’ literally translates into ‘mechanicaldeviceshootingwithoutcockingrifle?’ The words get longer still. No word is too long for a German because it’s quite impossible to bore a German. You cannot entertain a Norwegian, you cannot bore a German, and you cannot educate an American or a chimpanzee.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “He wanted to get away: this was like something out of Faulkner or Penn Warren, blasphemed southern ground, soaked in blood a generation old, white trash and black, white innocence and black, all commingled in a very small area on the same day.”

17. “He wanted to get away: this was like something out of Faulkner or Penn Warren, blasphemed southern ground, soaked in blood a generation old, white trash and black, white innocence and black, all commingled in a very small area on the same day.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Reggie was accused, he must have decided that if he told about the meeting, there’d be consequences. It would get out that a revolution was being planned, that a communist northern agitator was down South stirring up the colored. White people would get upset, there’d be violence against the church, the whole thing would come apart. The Klan would ride again. White people were very frightened in those days, I recall.”

18. “Reggie was accused, he must have decided that if he told about the meeting, there’d be consequences. It would get out that a revolution was being planned, that a communist northern agitator was down South stirring up the colored. White people would get upset, there’d be violence against the church, the whole thing would come apart. The Klan would ride again. White people were very frightened in those days, I recall.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “If they’s interested, they wouldn’t believe it. If they believed it, they’d arrest me.”

19. “If they’s interested, they wouldn’t believe it. If they believed it, they’d arrest me.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Your idealism will get you killed or, worse, knighted, and you’ll spend the rest of your days among fools and MPs. As for me, the chance to refuse an audience with the queen would be exquisite.”

20. “Your idealism will get you killed or, worse, knighted, and you’ll spend the rest of your days among fools and MPs. As for me, the chance to refuse an audience with the queen would be exquisite.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Okay,” he said, “I’m going in.” He turned to Swagger. “Sorry, old guy. A world where she dies so I can survive isn’t a world I choose to live in.”

21. “Okay,” he said, “I’m going in.” He turned to Swagger. “Sorry, old guy. A world where she dies so I can survive isn’t a world I choose to live in.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “In those days, the South was being prepared for the civil rights movement, which no matter what you might think, did not spring out of nowhere. For a decade, very brave young black ministers and young white volunteers traveled from church to church, where they tried to prepare the people for the dangerous work ahead.”

22. “In those days, the South was being prepared for the civil rights movement, which no matter what you might think, did not spring out of nowhere. For a decade, very brave young black ministers and young white volunteers traveled from church to church, where they tried to prepare the people for the dangerous work ahead.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “Because I’m too old for tragedy. I like a nice happy ending too.”

23. “Because I’m too old for tragedy. I like a nice happy ending too.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “I spent my life trying to get out of Oklahoma because I was too good for Oklahoma. Then I got to the Ivy League and the people seemed to be so, you know, little. They were fundamentally bigots. They.”

24. “I spent my life trying to get out of Oklahoma because I was too good for Oklahoma. Then I got to the Ivy League and the people seemed to be so, you know, little. They were fundamentally bigots. They.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “These in the day when heaven was falling, when earth’s foundations fled, followed their mercenary calling, took their wages and are dead.”

25. “These in the day when heaven was falling, when earth’s foundations fled, followed their mercenary calling, took their wages and are dead.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “What he called his own personal night was about the feeling of being nothing, of having no worth, of having spent himself in a war nobody cared about, and having given up everything that was important and good.”

26. “What he called his own personal night was about the feeling of being nothing, of having no worth, of having spent himself in a war nobody cared about, and having given up everything that was important and good.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “That’s what Nick ran into all the time on the streets. Somehow in America it had stopped being about us or we or the team or the family; it was this me-thing that turned people crazy. They expected so much. They thought they were so important. Everybody was an only child.”

27. “That’s what Nick ran into all the time on the streets. Somehow in America it had stopped being about us or we or the team or the family; it was this me-thing that turned people crazy. They expected so much. They thought they were so important. Everybody was an only child.”

— Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter Quote: “The Americans, he laughed drunkenly. They build more cars than anybody in the world, and take them out and dump them in terrible traffic jams. The only thing crazier than the Americans were the Russians, who never had traffic jams because they didn’t have cars.”

28. “The Americans, he laughed drunkenly. They build more cars than anybody in the world, and take them out and dump them in terrible traffic jams. The only thing crazier than the Americans were the Russians, who never had traffic jams because they didn’t have cars.”

— Stephen Hunter

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