King Rat Quotes
"This letter is number 205. We have had no news of you since your letter dated February 1, 1942, posted from Singapore. We’re praying for your safe return."
"Miraculously spared these, my father survived despite starvation, appendicitis, bullet wounds, jungle sores, and even a broken nose, received while defending his hut’s honor and its pregnant coconut tree."
"Perhaps, at the time, it was felt inappropriate for a harsh and groundbreaking novel of survival to include women’s equally harsh stories."
"My mother, at sixteen, would sit with her mother on the rooftop of their London house at night, watching the bombs drop and burst rather than cower in the airless shelter below."
"These men too were criminals. Their crime was vast. They had lost a war. And they had lived."
"But once outside, what then? Home was across the seas, beyond the horizon, beyond a limitless sea or hostile jungle."
"For the men, Changi was more than a prison. Changi was genesis, the place of beginning again."
"I’m going to get that bloody bastard if I die in the attempt."
"The hell I do. Jap law may say—To hell with Jap law. I’m talking about camp law."
"And no right to be the King, for the strongest is always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and strength and luck together."
"Sean was never that way. He was just a very handsome, gentle chap. There was nothing effeminate about him, just a sort of… compassion."
"What’s between you two?" the King asked. "I nearly killed him. Once."
"Peter Marlowe was thinking of nothing except his water bottle as he shoved through the sweating hive of men."
"But Peter Marlowe wasn’t listening to the curses and chatter and rumors. He hoped that the colonel and Mac had their water bottles too."
"The King was doing the thing he liked most in all the world. He was counting a stack of brand-new notes."
"The world was jungle, and the strong survived and the weak should die."
"It’s quite unfair to pick on a person, Dr. Kennedy, when one’s trying to do one’s best."
"Each with a bottle of water. Each waving at the constant swarming flies."
"Yes, Peter Marlowe thought contentedly, it’s going to be a good day."
"When you were with him he poured out strength and confidence. You felt better and stronger yourself—for you seemed to be able to feed on the magic that surrounded him."
"Most of the officers in Hut Sixteen were still asleep, or lying on their bunks waiting for breakfast, when he entered."
"Peter Marlowe thought again what a marvelous food the residue of coconut was."
"The Japanese officer, shattered the silence. 'There is a radio in this hut.'"
"Perhaps I’ll die of apoplexy trying to enforce ridiculous rules imposed by incompetent administrators."
"Maisie was half buried under broken bricks and twisted pipes and desecrated furniture."
"It is written, 'If a stranger comes to thee and asks for hospitality, give it to him that thou find favor in the sight of Allah.'"
"I think it would be very depressing to discover there was no God."
"A bear can take the honey of hornets without danger. A spider can seek safely under rocks, for it knows where and how to seek."
"Perhaps it is written in the Koran, without hope, man is but an animal."
"Protect another man as you expect him to protect you."
"I swear by God I agree and will obey. And I’ll do nothing to harm you while I’m here."
"How nice, he thought, the smell of petrol brings back memories."
"I see the Colonel so clearly that day, so neat and clean and gentle."
"I’m so lucky, so lucky. I thank God, I’m so lucky."
"The heritage that had kept the foreman alive in the black early death region protected her in the prison."
"It was a kind night, and the Java skies swam with stars, huge sparks of light in a carpet of ravened sea."
"But now, well, an officer always has a great deal of prestige."
"You put quite a store by the ‘word’ jazz, don’t you, Peter?"
"A ray of sunlight burned the Tank emblem in the beret, converting it from nothing into molten gold."
"You’d better be telling the truth, for your own sake."
"No, it isn’t, and I won’t be cross-questioned by—"
"I don’t know enough about weights and measures."
"If the weights are fixed it’s nothing to do with me."
"It is always wise when matters must be arranged in the bleakness of night."
"I swear to God I’d rather die than live a cripple."
"You’ve beaten us this time. But there’ll be another."
"You wanted me to be a woman, now they believe I am one."
"Everything that seems wrong is right, and vice versa."
"It makes you sick when you think of all that Red Cross medical supplies in the go-down on Kedah Street."
"You think I don’t realize that it was stupid? I’ll never do that again."
"It’s our word against Grey’s anyway. So don’t worry. If you keep your head and remember!"
"But Timsen was much too clever to allow the King to see through him."
"So Timsen named an extortionate figure and allowed himself to be beaten down."
"All right," the King said glumly. "You got a deal."
"It’ll take three days," Timsen said, knowing that three days would be too late."
"For Chrissake! What the hell’s the nurse for?"
"That’s what the five hundred’s for. I suppose you’re going to give the stuff to the Pommy."
"Sometime tonight. Oh yes, an’ the equipment’ll cost another five hundred."
"Thought you were so clever, didn’t you, finding out what cured gangrene for a cigarette."
"Once you’re born, you are obligated to survive. At all costs."
"Just get the money and give it to him and go up to the hospital and let them cut your arm off."
"God’s name," Father Donovan said compassionately. "Peter has gangrene."
"You’re very kind to me," Donovan said. His eyes twinkled as he added, "Now, if you three would see the error of your ways and come over to the right side of the fence, you’d complete my evening."
"Your skirts’re a joke. You’re all an unholy joke, you and God."
"The King knew that it was too early for safety, but he knew too that he could not keep him in the hut any longer."
"He straightened and sighed. "My bleedin’ back!" He looked at the purity of the bandage, then turned to the King. "Got a piece of shirt?""
"He must have lost fifteen pounds in the last two days and that’s dangerous at his weight, poor boy."
"If we catch the bushwhacker, before he comes ’ere or after he come ’ere, then I gets the price we agreed, right?"
"The trapdoor opened and Kurt climbed up into the room."
"Nothing to worry about. It’s—it’s going to be all right."
"We lost the war, our war. Didn’t we? We’re not heroes. We’re not!"
"I swear to Christ I’ll kill the next bugger who looks at me as though I’m a monkey."
"I don’t give a goddam if you’re Christ! Get out of here! Get out!"
"Man’s got to look after number one. No harm in that!"
"But I saw the King cut down to size, and I’ll see it happen to you."
"And then, in his turn, he looked back no more."
"And the strongest was always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and luck and strength together."