Brad Thor Quotes

#1. Anything that grows is, by definition, alive. Washington, D.C. was no exception. As a living organism, the Federal Government's number one job was self-preservation. Any threat to its existence had to be dealt with.

Brad Thor

#2. My first novel, 'The Lions of Lucerne,' just poured out of me. It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment. My biggest fear and therefore my biggest obstacle to becoming an author had been, 'What if I spend all that time and the book is no good?'

Brad Thor

#3. The Afghans I met were some of the nicest and most honorable people I've ever encountered. There is a code called 'Pashtunwali,' so if someone invites you into their village, every last man will fight to protect your life. I was impressed by that.

Brad Thor

#4. If you steadfastly refused to quit, you rapidly narrowed your options to only winning.

Brad Thor

#5. I've got more ideas for books than I'll ever be able to use in my lifetime. I'm very fortunate like that.

Brad Thor

#6. Well, my books - I think one of the hallmarks of my thrillers is that they're based in reality.

Brad Thor

#7. Less really is more. It's a tendency of beginning writers to want to prove what they're talking about by going too far with description. I think you've got to keep it short, crisp and clean.

Brad Thor

#8. Visiting Lucerne is like going to Disneyland: You can't imagine that it is real because it looks like a movie lot.

Brad Thor

#9. The great thing about the British SAS was that they viewed war the same way the American Special Operations community did. You didn't win by thinking inside the box and following someone else's rules. You turned the box upside down and made your own rules, no matter what the enemy threw at you.

Brad Thor

#10. Power perceived is power achieved.

Brad Thor

#11. When I came to New York as a writer, I was taken with the idea that you're only getting in on bridges and ferries and through tunnels. The idea behind 'Takedown' is that it would be very hard to get out.

Brad Thor

#12. The worth of a culture, in his opinion, could be boiled down to one thing - how well that culture took care of its weakest members, particularly its women and children.

Brad Thor

#13. My intent is not to inflame Muslims but to entertain readers of great thrillers. At the end of the day, I want people to see a good protagonist struggle against serious odds and do so with courage and honor and integrity.

Brad Thor

#14. Even one death is horrible.

Brad Thor

#15. Some of the best fan mail I get are from our men and women in the military and intelligence communities. They say, 'Boy you do your homework, this is exactly how we're doing it.'

Brad Thor

#16. When you grow up with a name like Brad Thor, people expect you to be 6-foot-4 and a pile of muscles.

Brad Thor

#17. Someone putting down $25 of his or her hard-earned money to buy my product, then doing it again because they felt the payoff was worth it. That's as good as it gets for an author.

Brad Thor

#18. Project to battle terrorists on their own

Brad Thor

#19. Aerotechnik Super Vivat Icarus motorgliders had an enormous wingspan and looked like a typical side-by-side pilot/passenger configuration sailplane that had been crossed with a small Cessna single-prop aircraft.

Brad Thor

#20. Carlton signaled and merged into a faster-moving lane. "Jacobson gave us his file with everything on the

Brad Thor

#21. If he's like any other man I've ever met, it's not my smile he's going to be looking at.

Brad Thor

#22. Have a smile for everyone you meet and a plan to kill them.

Brad Thor

#23. All members of Congress should be required wear NASCAR uniforms. You know, the kind with the patches? That way we'd know who is sponsoring each of them. I think he was kidding; they'd never be able to do it but it's a great idea and would wake people up in this country.

Brad Thor

#24. Benjamin Franklin, that those who trade some of their liberty for a little temporary security deserve neither and will lose both. The wisdom of the founders never ceased to amaze him.

Brad Thor

#25. Happiness in life is all about three things - something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.

Brad Thor

#26. Robert Ashford possessed one of the key character flaws necessary to a traitor. He thought he was smarter than everyone else. This allowed the overeducated career bureaucrat to sell out his own country, because he believed he knew what was best for his nation and its people.

Brad Thor

#27. Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. - JOHN F. KENNEDY

Brad Thor

#28. I had been fascinated with Islam since college - particularly how it could inspire such fervor in our modern age and move a significant number of its followers to horrific acts of violence. That invisible hand moved me to study more and more about Islam.

Brad Thor

#29. The only people who might hope to survive were those who had exercised some degree of caution and had prepared in advance.

Brad Thor

#30. The Tea Party is clearing gunk out of the fuel lines of this country. It started with throwing out Democrats, but the Republicans are going to be next. We're doing what needs to be done for the sake of the country.

Brad Thor

#31. People who took themselves too seriously not only were no fun, but could also be very dangerous.

Brad Thor

#32. My wife has a good sense of humor, and instead of calling me psychic with my novels, she simply refers to me as being 'psycho.' That's because multiple things in my books have come true.

Brad Thor

#33. Anyone that goes to battle goes to battle knowing the mindset and tactics of their enemies.

Brad Thor

#34. As the old saying goes, you can't spell unprofessional, unethical, or unaccountable without the UN.

Brad Thor

#35. Human beings are the most successful of animals because of their capability to learn, and an abused animal learns very quickly to defend itself. It also learns very quickly to trust very few people - if any.

Brad Thor

#36. I have been blessed to have had many excellent teachers. The further I get away from school, though, the more I realize that the greatest teachers in my life have come from outside of academia.

Brad Thor

#37. If there's one lesson I've learned, it's that life is all about change, and stress comes from avoiding change.

Brad Thor

#38. Most Americans are unaware that Thomas Jefferson was the first American president to go to war against radical Islam. Jefferson was very concerned with Islam's war-like doctrine and its inability to separate mosque and state.

Brad Thor

#39. I know my limits. You don't ever need to worry about me." "Thanks, Scot. I'll remind myself of that next time I see you looking like a flipped turtle.

Brad Thor

#40. We have an incredible warrior class in this country - people in law enforcement, intelligence - and I thank God every night we have them standing fast to protect us from the tremendous amount of evil that exists in the world.

Brad Thor

#41. Incredible brilliance often dwells on the razor's edge of madness ...

Brad Thor

#42. Let me make this very clear: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, our digital exhaust is being sucked up by the government. It is being compiled on big server farms and it's being analyzed by different computer programs, looking for any hint that you and I are up to no good.

Brad Thor

#43. If we talk about the glass being half empty or half full, I want to know what does the glass look like from underneath the table?

Brad Thor

#44. There is no justice in social justice, and there is no equality in social equality.

Brad Thor

#45. Making the best-seller list is a big deal; it's like being nominated for an Oscar. Hitting No. 1 is like actually winning the award. It's very gratifying.

Brad Thor

#46. Tell you the truth, Father, I don't think God has a favorite football team, or a favorite

Brad Thor

#47. Muslim students would go through a bunch of feel-good exercises and leave with the impression that without Islamic contributions to science, there would be no U.S. space program.

Brad Thor

#48. In the wake of 9/11, my wife Trish and I were stranded on the East Coast. We had planned a vacation to Greece, but flights had been halted. Instead, we ended up on a tiny island off the coast of Georgia.

Brad Thor

#49. My number one goal as a thriller writer is to entertain you. But I've got a chance to not only entertain people, but have them close my book and be smarter having read it.

Brad Thor

#50. I really believe that a writer is someone who has trained their mind to misbehave.

Brad Thor

#51. There aren't many honest men or women in Washington anymore. Politicians get where they are by the sheer force of their egos, not their convictions. And you know what? It's our fault as voters. We don't demand better candidates, so we end up getting what we deserve - on both sides of the aisle.

Brad Thor

#52. I wanted to live the life my characters were living, so I rented a yacht and sailed from Naples to Capri before taking a helicopter back. Got to write the whole thing off as research on my taxes.

Brad Thor

#53. There are writers who go their whole lives and never hit that No. 1 spot.

Brad Thor

#54. Show me one single patriot who has ever been in Barack Obama's life in any position of influence. You can't do it ... Barack Obama detests this nation as founded. He has zero respect for the founding documents.

Brad Thor

#55. I live in America. I have the right to write whatever I want. And it's equaled by another right just as powerful: the right not to read it. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people.

Brad Thor

#56. Success leaves clues, and if you sow the same seeds, you'll reap the same rewards.

Brad Thor

#57. What has bothered and angered radical Muslims is that I'm a non-Muslim writing anything at all about Islam. But this is fiction, and I don't think Islam is above criticism or fictionalization any more so than Judaism, Christianity, Mormonism or Hinduism is.

Brad Thor

#58. I like books that have razor-sharp plotting that snaps and moves along. It's not about the main character being different at the end. I don't want my main character to be different in the end. I still want him committed to his ideas, to be steadfast, true and loyal.

Brad Thor

#59. From the political angle, I'm trying to be apolitical if you will. I mean people say, 'Are you a red state or blue state?', I say, 'I'm purple.' I think there are great ideas on both sides of the aisle and neither side has cornered the market.

Brad Thor

#60. I write about things that are important for us as Americans. I'm concerned about al-Qaeda sneaking across the border with the illegal immigrants that are using the coyotes to get across the border. And that's not a Democrat or Republican issue, that's a national security issue.

Brad Thor

#61. You know when I told you the joke about how a friend will help you move, but a real friend will help you move a body? I was only kidding.

Brad Thor

#62. While the words are yet unspoken, you are master of them; when once they are spoken, they are master of you.

Brad Thor

#63. Al Qaeda doesn't abide by the Geneva Conventions, so in my opinion, they should not be afforded the protections of them.

Brad Thor

#64. I am indeed honored to call him my friend.

Brad Thor

#65. You can't kill an American Citizen without benefit of a trial."
"I can if you're on the list, traitor."
"LIST? What list? What the hell are you talking about?"
BLACK LIST, July 24

Brad Thor

#66. In America, only opportunity is assured, not outcomes. Anyone who promises otherwise is acting contrary to the values upon which our Republic was founded.

Brad Thor

#67. After the Berlin Wall came down and Communism was on the run, I looked around and wondered what the next threat to the United States would be.

Brad Thor

#68. The rain forests of the Congo Basin contained so much water that they caused their own weather system, and were known as the Lungs of Africa.

Brad Thor

#69. I tell people you should write what you love to read because that's where your passion is.

Brad Thor