Icon Quotes
"It was the summer when the price of a small loaf of bread topped a million rubles."
"He watched his country crashing into destitution, they had been the three most miserable years of his life."
"The Russian economy, like a war refugee raped too many times, lay down by the side of the road and died of despair."
"The sea had calmed down as they approached the island as if telling the fisherman and the mariners that the contest for the day was over and the ocean would call a truce till tomorrow."
"He was puzzled that he should not talk to the baker, for he was a jolly man who would sometimes stand in the doorway of his shop, wink at Leonid, and toss him a bulochka."
"But we can’t ask them that. There is a question of national prestige here."
"And when he promised them that the angel of death would walk among the crooks and gangsters who had raped their beloved Mother Russia, they loved him."
"His voice increased and deepened to a rolling baritone, using all the many expressions and inflections of the Russian language to great effect."
"It seemed enormous, as big as a house itself, but it rolled on tracks and had a long gun sticking out in front."
"Calm down, Norm. Tell me something. You ever heard of something called melioidosis?"
"The Rabbit wondered why it had been left out."
"A cold fear, part panic and part disbelief, gripped him."
"In the darkness Celia Stone took a long pull, felt the nicotine hit the spot."
"He was a fit young man who kept himself in shape with squash and swimming, but the previous two hours had required most of his stamina."
"The Rabbit had been born in a small and poor village west of Smolensk in 1936."
"The whole thing has been a complete … razebaistvo."
"No, don’t hang up. Just give me your name and your location."
"You are English?" asked the Russian at last. "No. Spanish."
"I mean, I’m trying to teach them to use basic tools and tractors. To increase their food, to feed themselves. No chance."
"Nice sea. Nice beach. Pity about the people who own it."
"Money, work, and love—in any order you like."
"He took the train north and enlisted at Khabarovsk."
"Looking at the big Siberian soldier across the table, Monk could envisage the faces of the long dead buffalo hunters of the Platte and Powder Rivers."
"He made his way without patronage or influence, surviving the racist taunts of churka, a Russian insult meaning "log" or "thick as a plank.""
"There was plenty of food, with lamb and fish barbecues on the beach."
"But there was something that had made him bitter and disillusioned with the regime he served."
"He learned, contrary to what he had always been taught, that the West did not want war with Russia."
"Back home our people huddle in tiny apartments, but the nachalstvo live in mansions."
"But to sit on your thumbs—to watch, hate and do nothing. Is that not also crazy?"
"He wouldn’t betray my worst enemy to these monkeys."
"Not changing. Those shits at the top ... I tell you, Esteban, since I moved to Moscow I have seen waste and profligacy you would not believe."
"The experience turned him against the party and the regime."
"The airport was being raked with fire, so the sea was the only way out."
"Each has told us who his control officers were, in some cases several of them. But no Jason Monk."
"The guys in Analysis are having a field day."
"Good hunting, as we say back home," replied the Siberian.
"He could imagine the small but cozy living room where a log fire would burn through the winter and the light always gleamed from the surfaces of her cherished, highly polished wedding furniture."
"Since the stroke his father had spent much of his time in his rocking chair out on the stoop, staring at the small town and the forested mountains beyond."
"Something about mothers... three thousand miles and she could sense the danger."
"He held the phone and stared through the windows at the stars over Scotland."
"The final and complete extermination of every last Chechen on the face of Russia... the destruction of the rat-people so that they will never rise again."
"In America, if you wished to disappear, I could make you disappear."
"I heard that in a world of degeneracy the Chechens still abide by their code of honor; that they pay their debts, the good and the bad."
"There’s nothing wrong with the bloody bones. They’re lovely bones. They’ve been lovely bones for about twenty years."
"In the cellars beneath Lefortovo he had shaken those pictures beneath the noses of Kruglov and Professor Blinov."
"By the time it was over, Kursk had become the biggest tank battle the world has ever seen, before or since."
"Down in the driver’s seat he felt the tank shudder and halt."
"The key to success is to know the enemy's intentions."
"All Russian and European history is a story of men of vision and determination who have seized the moment and taken the state."
"Power came from the barrel of a gun in Russia; always had and always would."
"The element of surprise. What about reinforcements?"
"If the worst should happen, if Komarov should win after all, what will happen to you, your wife, and Tatiana?"
"He fears the worst. Have you heard about Uncle Kolya?"
"They were peace-loving citizens, all the barracks lights should be on, with everyone inside in the warmth, having a noggin before lunch and preparing for an evening of harmless festivities."
"In due course, mused Grishin as he was driven away, the Jews of Moscow would indeed be taken care of, but so would the scum of the NRM."
"Give me the boy until the age of seven and I will give you the man."
"Everything in this corrupt country is for sale. That is why the Motherland needs Igor Komarov, to scour the pigpen."
"A man deciding to save himself would have to leave the walled enclosure."
"Anyone wishing to stay alive and out of prison would deduce he should leave soon via the only open gate."
"Just after two he caught a movement by the wall of the Great Palace."
"Monk’s bullet hit the stock of the AK with enough force to tear it from the colonel’s hands."
"In these are literally billions of dollars’ worth of historic artifacts."
"As his eyes adapted to the darkness, Monk could make out ahead of him the dim shape of the stairs."
"A few square inches of any of them, and the jewels stitched to them, would keep a working man for years."
"Taking a deep breath, Monk threw himself through the arch in a parachute roll."
"Monk’s bullet must have been close, for Grishin turned and ran into the next hall."
"Colonel Anatoli Grishin had taken the single bullet just above the left eye."