Paul Vidich > Quotes

“Here in Cuba death can be a temporary matter.”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“I am destined to live my life with a heart that yearns for a moment I didn’t seize.”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“Don’t let your imagination take you to a place where we’ll have to lie to each other.”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“Hemingway is there in Finca Vigía. Find out what he thinks of Castro. He’s a man dedicated to his art and has an equivalent dedication to everything he does,”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“He dressed quickly, Colt pistol stuffed under his belt, ears alert to the several voices below. When he got to the kitchen he found the breakfast table abandoned after being half set, a sudden interruption of the morning routine. The morning paper lay on the table with its headline of the latest news of the war. He glanced at the first paragraph, but shifted his attention to people scurrying in the courtyard. He looked through the kitchen, through the open library doors, and beyond to the swimming pool. The old caretaker had a lawn rake that he carefully extended in long reaching motions onto the surface of the water. There was something floating in the middle of the pool. On second glance, Mueller saw that it was a body. Mueller made his way through”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“They talked in the way one does late at night, prisoners of the hour. Reticence vanquished by elastic time.”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“She wears ambition like a curse.”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“We all suffer tragedy and disappointment. Who doesn’t? But what distinguishes one sufferer from another is the way that he is able to rise above misfortune.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy

“My family held Turkish, French, and Lebanese passports in one generation while living in the same house.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station

“We Beirutis have complicated feelings toward our city. We love Beirut when we are away and we hate it when we are here. We are happy only when we are leaving or returning.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy

“The scourge of this land is the curse of revenge.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station

“goes”
― Paul Vidich, The Matchmaker: A Spy in Berlin

“Of course, no one knows anyone really. You think you do until there is that one thing that surprises, and you reconsider their entire life in light of that new fact.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“have always thought Measure for Measure was a tough knot to untie. Pride. Humility. The most righteous character turns out to be a lust-addled hypocrite. I’d say that’s a good description of what is happening in Washington today. ‘Some rise by sin. Some by virtue fall.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“Today’s battle is different. We fight against falsehoods that stoke violence and we’re ill served by men who put self-interest above the common good. The hot rash of narcissism in the White House threatens to scorch this country.”
― Paul Vidich, The Poet's Game: A Spy in Moscow

“It didn’t surprise Mueller that once Vasilenko tasted money, his appetite grew. What he’d given was only the beginning of what he was willing to offer up, but the new material was of little use. Volume without value. Five thousand dollars a pop. Human nature. The line was crossed once. All that followed was greed and fear.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“She had lain awake for a long time, and when she finally accepted that sleep wasn’t going to come, she’d taken a long run in the predawn darkness. Berlin’s silent fog abstracted the licks and points of the streetlights along her path that followed the ominous glow of East German watchtowers. Jogging had always been a reliable companion. It helped keep her mind focused. Exhaustion, sweat, and sucking breaths in the cold drove away her anxious thoughts, and helped her achieve something not quite like calm. It was a long run alone on empty streets. A dark moon, curling fog, and gutters collecting fallen leaves. Her mind concentrated on her pace and the rhythm of her strides, reaching longer to meet a curb. Jogging helped her settle the images that came to her mind’s eye.”
― Paul Vidich, The Matchmaker: A Spy in Berlin

“Ever since I was a little girl I’ve woken up in the morning with a dread that everything good in my life will go away. I live today’s regrets for tomorrow’s disappointments.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“He felt the burden of what it took to explain a corrupt world to an innocent mind.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“The foolishness of alcohol wasn’t amusing to the observer who stuck with soda water.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“Her voice was impatient with rage. ‘They say the only deterrent to terror is to kill terrorists. It’s the same argument that dictators have made to murder opponents throughout history. Say it whatever way you want – whether it comes from the mouth of a dictator or as an excuse to repress people of different political views – it’s the same old serpent.’ Halima swept her hand across the evening. ‘All this violence. The idea that killing people solves problems. War is all they know, and they are good at it, so they kill people thinking that war will bring peace. It never brings peace. There is only a pause in the war.’ She was quiet for a moment, struggling with her indignation. ‘They are not a kind people. Some are kind, some are wise, but not the politicians. The opposite of kindness is not cruelty. It is indifference. All this’ – she looked across the bombed city – ‘is indifference. Our suffering isn’t about who we are. It is about who they are. Airplanes and tanks give them the power to be indifferent.’ She sipped her drink, and her voice lowered and softened. ‘Israel’s prime ministers – Sharon, Olmert, Netanyahu – believe they can solve these problems with toughness, but things have changed. The Islamic faith has spread. For better or worse.’ Her hand went to her heart. When she spoke again, her soprano voice was strident. ‘How will they frighten jihadists who love martyrdom?’ She shook her head. ‘God forbid.’ ‘You’re wrong,’ Analise said. ‘Not all Israelis are that way.’ ‘Je le croirai, guard je le verrai.’ She paused. ‘Let them show it.’ She waved dismissively. ‘Beirut survived the Romans, the Ottomans, the French. The land and the people endure. That land has defeated stronger enemies than Israel. Israel is an idea. Ideas come and go. Land endures.’ She lowered her head and looked out at the darkened city. Her words came in quiet lament. ‘The scourge of this land is the curse of revenge.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station

“Giving famishes the craving.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“obituary. Another casualty of her tour in Beirut. Analise’s depression came in waves, but like the tide, it also receded. No good came from dwelling on what had happened. She felt responsible for Aldrich’s death, although she knew that she was blameless, but the inner workings of guilt didn’t assuage her pain. She admired his faith; his noble, hopeless idealism; and she had no problem reconciling that to do good required the diligent exercise of evil. The number of men she’d killed, or had a hand in killing, had doubled. She had done what was required.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy

“ninth.”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“If one had the choice of betraying one’s country or one’s friend, one should hope for the courage to betray one’s country.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“He was of a class of deeply optimistic men, Mueller knew, and he knew this because he recognized himself in Graham, who had lived through World War II, who believed in the power of an idea – who believed that any challenge could be overcome by will power, and by money, intellect, and when necessary, covert action.”
― Paul Vidich, The Good Assassin

“They were waiting for the right excuse. The IDF saw what America did in Iraq. They thought they could do the same here. In and out. Declare victory. Mission accomplished.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station

“the grouping of popular fiction had an old Eric Ambler, which he admired for its wisdom within a vulgar yarn spun to showcase a clever plot.”
― Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man

“like people who abdicate their individual identity to became part of some precious group, beating their breasts, proud to be this or that. It is a fraud. Oh, we”
― Paul Vidich, The Matchmaker: A Spy in Berlin

“I don’t hate the English. I have nothing against the colonial bastards. It’s a lovely weakened country with a big useless history.”
― Paul Vidich, Beirut Station