American novelist (1960- )
Even though we weren't old, we were old with all we carried inside.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Finisher
At this prison the doors are inches thick, steel; once factory smooth, they now carry multiple dents. Imprints of human faces, knees, elbows, teeth, residue of blood are harvested large on their gray surface. Prison hieroglyphics: pain, fear, death, all permanently recorded here, at least until a new slab of metal arrives.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Simple Truth
After all, there were bills to pay, shopping to do, kids to raise, and sports to watch, so who had time for anything else?
DAVID BALDACCI
The Whole Truth
You know what kind of person it takes to run for President? Not normal. They could start out okay, but by the time they reach that level they've sold their soul to the devil so many times and stomped the guts out of enough people that they are definitely not like you and me, not even close.
DAVID BALDACCI
Absolute Power
Small mistakes tend to lead to large ones. Ours is a lifetime appointment, and all you have is your reputation. Once it's gone, it doesn't come back.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Simple Truth
King heard the bang, like the sound of a dropped book. He could feel the moisture on his hand where it had touched Ritter's back. And now the moisture wasn't just sweat. His hand stung where the slug had come out of the body and taken a chunk off his middle finger before hitting the wall behind him. As Ritter dropped, King felt like a comet flying hell-bent and still taking a billion light-years to get where it's actually going.
DAVID BALDACCI
Split Second
I love my country. It is a place of beauty. The people there are good. They like to work hard. They love their freedoms. But that does not mean that every leader we have is a good one who deserves the respect of the people. So sometimes when you do not follow along blindly things happen to you.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Forgotten
Sometimes inspiration hits in the middle of the night and I want to get up and work on it. It’s that spark of immediacy. For me, it’s a tap which is on all the time.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Telegraph, November 16, 2015
It's my experience that most folk who ride trains could care less where they're going. For them it's the journey itself and the people they meet along the way. You see, at every stop this train makes, a little bit of America, a little bit of your country, gets on and says hello.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Christmas Train
I want people to realize wars could be fought in many different types of battlefields whether the desert in Iraq or the urban streets of London or America. These are two very different kinds of battlefields. Because many citizens have no direct engagement with the soldiers and their families they think they could not be harmed. We are never really safe wherever we are. It is an important cliché, ‘see something, say something.’ People should not be listening to their ear buds or staring at their phones oblivious to everyone around them.
DAVID BALDACCI
interview, Crime Spree Magazine, November 14, 2017
For once in a long time, he felt good. No worries, just possibilities. Endless possibilities.
DAVID BALDACCI
Absolute Power
Very few people knew I was writing during those years: my mom and dad, my brother and sister, my wife. That was it. Not even my in-laws knew. It was a very personal thing for me I was pursuing. My wife obviously was very instrumental. We had a family, and she took on more of the labor of that, allowing me to write at night, early in the morning, and on the weekends. My mom and dad obviously instilled the love of reading in all three of us siblings; we went to the library every weekend and checked out lots of books. But for my love of books, I wouldn’t have ended up being a writer. But I could open a book and explore different parts of the world without ever leaving the city where I grew up. It was a fascinating thing, and I became mesmerized by the power of language. That’s really what started it for me.
DAVID BALDACCI
interview, The Strand
She had spent considerable time writing the letter. The younger generation, with all of its tweets and Facebook and cryptic texts and emails where no actual language or grammar were involved, would never have understood taking the time.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Forgotten
It's hard, Cotton. To let yourself love something you know you may never have.
DAVID BALDACCI
Wish You Well
Confidence is one thing, disrespect is quite another.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Simple Truth
Life is what it is, Will. You take it as it comes.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Innocent
All you have to do is spend your life running from one awful place to another, write about every horrible thing you see. The civilized world reads about it, then forgets it, but pats you on the head for doing it and gives you a reward as appreciation for changing nothing.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Christmas Train
Woe be to the wug who forgets that destroying one part of a thing does not equal victory.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Finisher
My country is filled with the metal carcasses of Soviet tanks. The farmers just plow around them.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Camel Club
If you don't know where you want to go, I suppose any path will get you there.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Finisher