Max Allan Collins > Quotes

“Evelyn: Look, I... I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick: And what is that?
Evelyn: I... am a librarian.

The Mummy (1999)”
― Max Allan Collins, The Mummy

“Everyone needs help. That's the human condition.”
― Max Allan Collins, Jump Cut

“Evelyn: [drunk] You're wondering, 'What is a place like me doing in a girl like this?'
Rick: Yeah, something like that.”
― Max Allan Collins, The Mummy

“Rick: Can you swim?
Evelyn: Well, of course I can swim if the occasion calls for it.
Rick: [throwing her overboard] Trust me. It calls for it.”
― Max Allan Collins, The Mummy

“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”
Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth President of the United States of America. Served 1913–1921. President during World War I, only President to be interred within Washington, DC, at the National Cathedral.”
― Max Allan Collins, Executive Order

“She was a big blonde woman with more curves than the highway out front and just the right number of hills and valleys.”
― Max Allan Collins, Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration

“Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much, my wife is even gonna recognize me whenever it is I get back to her, and how I'll ever be able to, tell about days like today. Ahh, Ryan. I don't know anything about Ryan, I don't care. The man means nothing to me; he's just a name. But if, you know, if going to Rem"al, and finding him so he can go home, if that earns me the right to get back to my wife, well then, then that's my mission.”
― Max Allan Collins

“they maybe didn’t deserve respect, exactly, but I knew enough to give them some.”
― Max Allan Collins, True Detective

“To get what you want, stop doing what isn't working. - Earl Warren”
― Max Allan Collins

“Fiction is largely the process of writers solving problems of their own creation.”
― Max Allan Collins

“Is that where you took care of him? In a restroom?"
"No. I walked him out to the runway and threw him in front of a Boeing.”
― Max Allan Collins, Quarry

“Law not served by power is an illusion; but power not ruled by law is a menace.”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures. - Earl Warren”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“Beware how you take hope from another human being. - Oliver Wendell Holms Jr.,”
― Max Allan Collins

“Zigzag... don't bunch up. Weave like a drunk on New Year's... Got it?”
― Max Allan Collins, Saving Private Ryan

“Try and catch me, you big boob!”
― Max Allan Collins

“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have the right to do and what is the right thing to do.” Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court,”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. - John Fitzgerald Kennedy”
― Max Allan Collins

“If Columbus had an advisory committee, he would probably still be at the dock.”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“It’s about this girl who was married three times and was still a virgin. Know how she managed that? First she married a midget, see, and he was too small. Next she married a preacher, and he was too religious. Then she married a small-town cop, and he couldn’t find it.”
― Max Allan Collins, Early Crimes

“She couldn’t stop herself from grinning back at”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“Bobby shook his head; he looked very young and very old all at once. "why are these actors so difficult to deal with?"
"That's because they're damaged goods, Bob. They're talented, often gifted, but they live out of suitcases and pretend to be somebody they aren't, for a living. You know--like politicians?”
― Max Allan Collins, Bye Bye, Baby

“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have the right to do and what is the right thing to do. - Potter Stewart”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“Amun kum ra. Amun kum dei.”
― Max Allan Collins, The Mummy

“Laws are made to protect the trusting as well the suspicious. - Hugo L. Black”
― Max Allan Collins

“The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“Doris Day was singing "Secret Love" on the jukebox and couples were clutching to it. You could have sliced the smoke in there and sold it for bacon.”
― Max Allan Collins, Do No Harm

“People are very quick to ridicule others for showing fear. But we rarely know the secret springboards behind human action. The man who shows great fear today may be tomorrow’s hero. Who are we to judge?” Audie Murphy, most decorated soldier of World War II, Congressional Medal of Honor winner.”
― Max Allan Collins, Supreme Justice

“History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.” Gerald R. Ford, thirty-eighth President of the United States of America. Served 1974–1977. The”
― Max Allan Collins, Executive Order

“Inside my head, I shit my pants.”
― Max Allan Collins, Quarry