Steve Cavanagh > Quotes

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Thirteen

“The truth has no place in a courtroom. The only thing that matters is what the prosecution can prove.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Defence

“Mourning is sometimes a dull ache that won’t leave, and other times it’s like pricking your finger on a needle hidden in a shopping bag.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Kill for Me Kill for You

“People believe what they can see. As long as you control their view, you control their mind.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Plea

“You have to ignore the wreckage and look beyond it for the monster.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Th1rt3en

“Whatever good things you’ve heard about me probably aren’t true. Whatever bad things you’ve heard are probably just the tip of the iceberg,” I said.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Thirteen

“Hustling an insurance company was like playing poker with Satan—his house, his rules.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Defence

“The victories are sweet and soon forgotten, but the mistakes stay with you forever.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Liar

“What they all understood was that if they told me they were guilty but that they wanted to fight the case anyway, I could no longer represent them. That was the game.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Defence

“Words never weigh so much as when they’re spoken for somebody else.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Thirteen

“I think I'll stick around as a defense attorney for a while yet,' I said.
'Why? Look at all this has cost you, Eddie. Why do it?'
I wasn't even looking at Harry, but I could sense be already knew the answer.
'Because I can. Because I have to. Because there will always be the Art Pryors and Rudy Carps of this business. Somebody's gotta do the right thing.'
'It doesn't always have to be you,' said Harry.
'What if everyone said that? What if nobody stood up for anyone because they expected the other guy to do it? Somebody has to be standing on the other side of the line. And if I fall, somebody will have to come along and take my place. All I have to do is keep standing for as long as I can.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Th1rt3en

“You don’t need a bomb to win this case. You’ve already got one—I’m the bomb.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Defence

“THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS a bad case. Only a bad client. Judge Harry Ford, my mentor, had taught me that a long time ago. He’d been proven right. Time and time again. Sitting in a leather chair beside Bobby Solomon, I was reminded of Harry’s advice.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Thirteen

“It’s hard to describe the truth. It has a weight. A density. It makes a sound when it drifts through your breastplate, hits your soul and then falls into your guts. You feel it. It haunts the air and it’s so thick and undeniable you almost feel like you can take a bite clean out of it. Mostly, you just know it when you hear it.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Accomplice

“Bow ties spell danger to trial lawyers; no one is more strident in their views than a man in a bow tie.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Defence

“It becomes different. More distant, I guess. The pain changes. It dulls. It’s always there, but it doesn’t always rip your heart out, you know?”
― Steve Cavanagh, Kill for Me, Kill for You

“This was how it had to be. The city centre had to be for all religions, and so the ubiquitous, shinning, grey had quickly become the nascent colour. Whereas the the Ardoyne rejoced in the tricolours and every shade of green, so too the Shankill kept their houses and kerbs in the Union Jack, and each side of the divided city painted their gables and drenched themselves in the rich colours which formed their history, their protection, their identity, their, and they lived under the terrible weight that came with it. In Belfast, colour was joyful, territorial, and frightening. And so the heart of the city embraced a comforting blanket of grey.”
― Steve Cavanagh

“Walking past a person with dirt on their face, and no food, and no money, was part of everyday life in New York.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Thirteen

“She’d brought her stenotype machine in a portable bag and, judging by her expression, she was carrying around a big bag of resentment for being hauled out of her bed to come here at two in the morning.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Thirteen

“His face, normally a brighter shade of corpse, turned just a little red.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Devil's Advocate

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”—from the motion picture screenplay The Usual Suspects, by Christopher McQuarrie”
― Steve Cavanagh, Thirteen

“People can be good. There is such a thing as a good person. Someone who does good things because they enjoy it. Why, then, can’t the opposite be true? Why can’t a person just be evil because they enjoy it? I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but now I could see the sense. Evil is real. It lives in dark places, and it can consume a human being like a cancer.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Fifty Fifty

“Do exactly as I tell you or I’ll put a bullet in your spine.”
― Steve Cavanagh, The Defence

“Emotional touchstones in life create powerful memories that can live large again with a smell, a word, or a feeling.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Kill for Me, Kill for You

“Racists are weak, Eddie. They only have strength in numbers.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Fifty Fifty

“I’d function,’ said Hernandez. ‘I’d find the motherfucker and I’d put a bullet between his legs. Then I’d go to work on him.’ ‘Not everyone is a psycho like you, Karen.’ ‘Don’t knock the psychos. We can be useful.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Kill for Me Kill for You

“Some people, those with money and the ear of power, never pay for their crimes the way ordinary people do.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Kill for Me, Kill for You

“His face, normally a brighter grade of corpse, turned just a little red.”
― Steve Cavanagh

“Daddy was being bad again. Josef Johnson had been born with every advantage and privilege it was possible to enjoy: loving parents, wealth, good looks, intelligence, contacts, and power. By the age of twenty-five, he had thrown almost all of it away. He had a fire inside him that consumed his better nature, his habits, his mind, and everyone around him. The only thing that could calm it down was the thrill of winning a poker hand or a horse race. But he was not a good gambler. The losses always outweighed the wins. Soon the only thing that gave him peace was strong liquor—and eventually all that did was add flames.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Witness 8

“Mi principal problema como abogado es que yo quiero que se castigue a los culpables y que los inocentes salgan libres. Y la ley no funciona así. Nunca lo ha hecho y nunca lo hará.”
― Steve Cavanagh, Cincuenta cincuenta