Jake Needham > Quotes

“For some reason, America produced an inexhaustible supply of sanctimonious killjoys endlessly crusading to improve everyone else’s life.”
― Jake Needham, And Brother It's Starting to Rain

“Oh for God’s sake, Jack, lighten up. You know the old saying. Every man loves the smell of his own farts.” In”
― Jake Needham, Laundry Man

“Never kick a cow turd on a hot day. Harry Truman said that. Words to live by.”
― Jake Needham, The King of Macau

“An escorted basis?” Tay asked. “Authorized embassy personnel must be with you at all times.” “What happens if I have to go to the bathroom?” The young marine didn’t smile. “I hear that one every day, sir.” God, what’s wrong with these people? Don’t any of them have a sense of humor?”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“was hot out there, and sweaty. When he walked places rather than taking a taxi, he generally arrived at his destination with his shirt plastered to his back. Still, he thought it was worth it. He would have preferred walking in a cooler place, of course, but then he would not have the warm nights he loved so much, nights when the air itself seemed alive with possibilities. Maybe there was a city somewhere on earth that had cool days and warm nights.”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“As usual, the television news was little more than a lumbering chronicle of depressing disasters, both natural and man-made. It didn’t enlighten Tay about the state of the world. It just reminded him why he never read newspapers or watched television news. If this was what had happened that somebody thought worth remembering, Tay generally ended up deciding on those few occasions when he did either, today was certainly a day that mankind could just as easily have skipped.”
― Jake Needham, The Umbrella Man

“even looked to be approximately the right”
― Jake Needham, Laundry Man

“Surely, even in a world apparently turned enthusiastically relativistic in nearly all matters of belief and conviction, at least this single principle of physiological, if not moral, certainty still held true. There were men and there were women, and there were straights and there were gays. And that was that.”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“He had checked quickly for a pulse and found none. That was why Tay had taken August’s backup gun.”
― Jake Needham, The Dead American

“Maybe it was simply the Buddhist soul in most Thais. Life is suffering. Don't complain. Endure.”
― Jake Needham, GOODBYE, MR. BOOGIE

“not to say anything to Kang when Sergeant Lee caught up and slid into the back seat. “They’re getting into a taxi, sir,” Kang said from the driver’s seat as the door closed. Tay decided any discussion with Kang of modern sexuality in Singapore could wait for a more convenient time. “Don’t lose him, Robbie.” “No, sir. I won’t.” Tay leaned back in his seat as Sergeant Kang pulled away. He still didn’t have the first idea how to play this, but he supposed not much would happen as long as DeSouza and his friend were in a taxi.”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“The Singapore Marriott was a thirty-three story octagonal-shaped tower crowned by a gigantic Chinese-style roof that loomed over the corner of Scotts and Orchard Roads, the busiest intersection in the city. The roof was no doubt supposed to soften the building’s appearance by making it look vaguely reminiscent of a traditional Chinese pagoda. Tay thought that was ridiculous. What it really made the building look like was a giant dildo. Worse, the stupid roof was green with something right at its peak that resembled a red pom-pom. The Marriott not only looked like a giant dildo, it looked like a giant dildo wearing a green rubber with a red tip on it.”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“Although we usually don’t notice them until long after they have passed, there are moments in life when everything hangs in the balance. There are moments when we really can change the future. When those moments come, either you lift your arms and fly, or you don’t. There’s nothing in between.”
― Jake Needham, And Brother It's Starting to Rain

“things get a little too hairy for you, send up a flare and Uncle John will come running to save your beautiful butt just like he always has. You hear me, girl?” Cally stared at August in silence for what must have been a minute or more, which Tay thought was quite a long time to stare at somebody without saying anything. Then she did say something. “I don’t need you for that anymore, John.”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“She was expected to recover, but the prognosis was uncertain as to whether she might have”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” —Verbal Kint The Usual Suspects”
― Jake Needham, Killing Plato

“The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.”
― Jake Needham, The King of Macau

“To tell the truth, Tay didn’t like anywhere in Thailand very much. Beneath its veneer of exotic cuisine, extravagant temples, and saintly monks lay the dark heart of a country that lived off very little but sex and greed.”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“there for an attack to disburse the demonstrators”
― Jake Needham, Mongkok Station

“It’s available at Amazon in both ebook and paperback editions right here: THE DEAD AMERICAN”
― Jake Needham, Killing Plato

“Who was it who said, No matter how cynical you get in Washington, it’s hard to keep up?”
― Jake Needham, And Brother It's Starting to Rain

“The night smelled of salt water and rotting fish, of neighborhood kitchens and mystifying foods, of diesel fuel and burning charcoal, and of plants and flowers with euphonious but utterly unpronounceable names.”
― Jake Needham, Killing Plato

“Irish whiskey smelled to him of days just slightly off-center. It was particularly beguiling if you liked earth, rain, sadness, and despair, and who doesn’t like”
― Jake Needham, Who the Hell is Harry Black?

“the debris nor the smoke which blocked the tunnel”
― Jake Needham, Mongkok Station

“If you’re going to fight, fight like you’re the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s Ark. And brother, it’s starting to rain. — on a t-shirt being sold by a Bangkok street vendor”
― Jake Needham, And Brother It's Starting to Rain

“Nobody lived around here. It was one of those American neighborhoods in which upper middle-income workers were warehoused, but in which very little real, actual living was done.”
― Jake Needham, And Brother It's Starting to Rain

“Tay knew that if he gave the Hong Kong police what he had discovered, they wouldn't have been able to touch Albert Chan. He doubted they would have even tried.”
― Jake Needham, Mongkok Station

“The motivations for human action were depressingly trivial.”
― Jake Needham, And Brother It's Starting to Rain

“Tay glanced at Evans, whose short hair and well-scrubbed face unmistakably marked him as another American. So far, Tay thought, this had all the makings of an authentically crappy day. First the stupid building, and now all these Americans.”
― Jake Needham, The Ambassador's Wife

“part”
― Jake Needham, Laundry Man