Tim Tigner > Quotes

“Max had no idea, but figured it had to be easier than getting around the gait monitor. “Let me worry about that. Just answer the question. Can you do it?” “Can I get you boys some more nachos? Or maybe some sliders?” Their waitress spoke with a Southern accent that Max would have found charming under other conditions. He brushed her away without looking up. Wang spent another second savoring Max’s suffering while he pretended to ponder. The obvious ploy made Max want to slap him. “Technically, it’s well within our capabilities.”
― Tim Tigner, The Lies of Spies

“that there is a ‘right’ side in most conflicts. You can identify it by looking for the side that doesn’t lower the bar. Morals are meaningless if you can suspend them at whim—and ‘love and war’ can encompass just about any whim.”
― Tim Tigner, Coercion

“Cassi was beaming as she walked through the door, causing Wiley to swallow hard. She really could brighten a room. She paused halfway to his desk to look around. “You know I’ve never been inside this office before. It looks bigger than my loft. What do you have back there?” She nodded to the door he had just come through. “The secret files, or a private bath?”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“don’t think we’re supposed to be happy. I mean the big us, humans. I think we’re supposed to struggle. I think that’s because there’s something more important to our psyche than hedonistic happiness.”
― Tim Tigner, The Price of Time

“Luther had been surprisingly gentlemanly with her. Despite Giselle’s mention that Luther liked the hunt more than the conquest, Emmy had fully expected him to come to her cabin the first night and take her anyway he liked. On the ocean there was no one to hear her scream. She had lain awake until dawn, a steak knife poised to thrust, but Luther had kept to himself.”
― Tim Tigner, Flash

“Satisfaction. The satisfaction that comes from achievement. From having worked and produced and accomplished. Adults need it the way babies need milk. And like milk, satisfaction has a shelf life. People can feed off past accomplishments for a couple of weeks, but their mood starts to sour after that. “I have developed the theory that adults wean themselves off the need to achieve as they move beyond middle age. By the time they’re seniors, they can sustain a positive attitude off the energy of past accomplishments. But as Immortals, we’re stuck with the achievement appetite of youth.”
― Tim Tigner, The Price of Time

“Why was she thinking about such silly stuff at a time like this? She knew the answer. Her mind was spinning its tires, looking for traction on friendly ground.”
― Tim Tigner, The Price of Time

“Do you think the axiom is true, that ‘all is fair in love and war’?” she asked. “Of course not,” Alex said. “That’s the antithesis of the Golden Rule. The precipice of a very slippery slope. The universal justification for lowering the bar.”
― Tim Tigner, Coercion

“I just provide the words. I let the client provide most of the meaning and all of the significance.”
― Tim Tigner, Flash

“EVEN AS SHE STOOD teary-eyed before the cold oak casket and scores of familiar mourners, Cassi could not convince her psyche that she had been forever cleaved from her twin. She took a deep breath. The aromas of white lilies and freshly turned earth took her tumbling back to her parents’ funeral. It seemed at once like only yesterday and yet so long ago. As then, today felt neither real nor right.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“When you can’t control a situation,” he nodded toward his hindquarters, “your best move is to control how you feel about it. In situations like that you’re almost always better off forcing vibrancy than feeling vulnerable.”
― Tim Tigner, Coercion

“They were in and out of Walmart in under ten minutes, toting a bag of generic clothes. Max then drove his fiancée back to his hotel as planned, but their love making didn’t wait until after dinner. Since the purple dress was so eye-catching, he wanted her to change before going down to dinner. But the moment she slipped the dress off her slender shoulders, the dinner plan was postponed.”
― Tim Tigner, The Lies of Spies

“As alarm bells went off in his mind, Odi wondered if the al-Qaeda sniper had some new high-tech equipment that allowed him to home in on a target using radio waves. He would report that possibility—if he ever got home.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“THE WOMAN seemed to spend forever staring into the patrol car’s side mirror. When she finally straightened back up to look at him, her posture drooped. The Colt dangled from her arm like a burdensome weight. Tinkerbell had run out of pixie dust.”
― Tim Tigner, Flash

“They say pressure is the first ingredient for making mistakes.”
― Tim Tigner, The Price of Time

“When his count reached thirty children he stopped. Five more hours at six children per hour would take him to eight o’clock. He crouched down before a two-year-old girl. Lily was her name if he remembered correctly. He said, “Hello Beautiful,” and stroked her hot cheek with the back of his hand. He took the cap off the iodine and wet the tip of his index finger. He drew a semicircle on her forehead and added two dots. To him it was a smiley face, but if asked he would say it was a moon and two stars. Turning to the mother he said, “Your daughter will be the last patient of the day.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“Odi wanted to leap over the desk, grab his boss by the ears and put a knee through his smug face, but he knew that would not help his team. Instead he bit back his frustration and tried to suck it up like a good soldier. “That won’t be necessary, sir.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“Have any shots been fired?” Cassi asked, remembering that this was the second time she had negotiated with a man named Elvis and wondering if that could be pure coincidence. “Not a one.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“By making it clear that she didn’t trust me, Irina was warning me that she had become untrustworthy.”
― Tim Tigner, What New Hell Next?: One Thriller Writer's Personal Horror Story

“Hold on a minute,” Odi interrupted. “There were other incidents? Other attacks?”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“As a general rule, people project their character traits onto others. Courageous people expect bravery from others. Intelligent people expect others to be sensible. And trustworthy people are trusting.”
― Tim Tigner, What New Hell Next?: One Thriller Writer's Personal Horror Story

“AS HE ACCEPTED Luther Kanasis’s firm hand, Oliver was struck by the thought that the attorney had encouraged his misperception. Luther had played to Oliver’s preconceptions in order to slip behind his defenses and have an unguarded look around. No doubt this tactic served Luther well as an attorney, but Oliver suspected that Luther did it more for the sport. “Tell me about your case,” Luther said, motioning to the suite of chairs.”
― Tim Tigner, Flash

“Immortality?” “Yeah. It looks like the solution to all your problems, the thing that will bring you everlasting happiness. Until you get it. Then your mind adapts and resets, and you find yourself faced with a new and equally compelling set of wants and wishes.”
― Tim Tigner, The Price of Time

“Over time, I conditioned myself to calibrate my psychological response to dangers based on their probability. I learned to evaluate before I react.”
― Tim Tigner, Pushing Brilliance

“Some of us need to risk dying in order to feel like we’re living.”
― Tim Tigner, The Price of Time

“Tim Tigner began his career in Soviet Counterintelligence with the US Army Special Forces, the Green Berets. That was back in the Cold War days when, “We learned Russian so you didn't have to,” something he did at the Presidio of Monterey alongside Recon Marines and Navy SEALs. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tim switched from espionage to arbitrage. Armed with a Wharton MBA rather than a Colt M16, he moved to Moscow in the midst of Perestroika. There, he led prominent multinational medical companies, worked with cosmonauts on the MIR Space Station (from Earth, alas), chaired the Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, and helped write Russia’s first law on healthcare. Moving to Brussels during the formation of the EU, Tim ran Europe, Middle East, and Africa for a Johnson & Johnson company and traveled like a character in a Robert Ludlum novel. He eventually landed in Silicon Valley, where he launched new medical technologies as a startup CEO. In his free time, Tim has climbed the peaks of Mount Olympus, hang glided from the cliffs of Rio de Janeiro, and ballooned over Belgium. He earned scuba certification in Turkey, learned to ski in Slovenia, and ran the Serengeti with a Maasai warrior. He acted on stage in Portugal, taught negotiations in Germany, and chaired a healthcare conference in Holland. Tim studied psychology in France, radiology in England, and philosophy in Greece. He has enjoyed ballet at the Bolshoi, the opera on Lake Como, and the symphony in Vienna. He’s been a marathoner, paratrooper, triathlete, and yogi.  Intent on combining his creativity with his experience, Tim began writing thrillers in 1996 from an apartment overlooking Moscow’s Gorky Park. Decades later, his passion for creative writing continues to grow every day. His home office now overlooks a vineyard in Northern California, where he lives with his wife Elena and their two daughters. Tim grew up in the Midwest, and graduated from Hanover College with a BA in Philosophy and Mathematics. After military service and work as a financial analyst and foreign-exchange trader, he earned an MBA in Finance and an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton and Lauder Schools.  Thank you for taking the time to read about the author. Tim is most grateful for his loyal fans, and loves to correspond with readers like you. You are welcome to reach him directly at tim@timtigner.com.”
― Tim Tigner, Falling Stars

“Paste them beneath the photos and make me wanted posters. I want every law enforcement and customs officer on the island to have a copy within the hour. Put COP KILLERS on the top in big bold letters.”
― Tim Tigner, Flash

“Good morning yourself,” Wiley said, kissing her cheek. “Cassi, allow me to introduce Stuart.” The third wheel held out his hand. “Stuart Slider.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“It doesn’t,” he said, shaking his head as she feigned disappointment. “You’re going to have to wait five years for that. In the meantime, it makes you Second Lady—come a year from January anyway.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal

“What’s the target?” Flint asked, mindlessly shaving the hair on his forearm with the oiled blade of his Ka-Bar knife.”
― Tim Tigner, Betrayal