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80d53f0
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Rain shook his head. "I don't like meetings generally. I especially don't like ones that are unnecessary and proposed by someone else."
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Barry Eisler |
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2705579
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Is there any teacher better, more patient, more determined than fate?
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teaching
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Barry Eisler |
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d26bbe1
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Rationalization was my narcotic. And, as with all drugs, over time, I habituated to mine. I needed more and more to accomplish less and less. Eventually, there was no dose at all that could confer the comfort I craved.
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Barry Eisler |
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9852ea5
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That was the dirty little secret of 9/11,
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Barry Eisler |
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922b076
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It was fascinating, how people could be so reluctant to recognize blackmail, how eager they could be to convince themselves it was something else, even something fundamentally mutually cooperative. And sometimes it seemed the more powerful the individual, the greater the capacity for self-deception. He
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Barry Eisler |
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298307b
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know. I get it. Because when I knew but they didn't know I knew, that was good. But when they knew that I knew but I didn't know they knew, that was bad. But now that I know they know that I know, and they don't know it, it's good again.
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Barry Eisler |
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d2b7df1
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A turtle doesn't get up on a bookshelf by itself,
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Barry Eisler |
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84aebee
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In the scope of the universe, and the arc of justice, my life is of little consequence.
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Barry Eisler |
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7069646
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Both women had been wearing earbuds--one of the many things Livia taught her self-defense students never to do, because demonstrating both that you can't hear and that you're too naive to know better is a beacon to predators.
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Barry Eisler |
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eea6928
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But denial . . . well, you know what they say about denial." Ben nodded, seeing where this was going now, not wanting to show what he really thought of it. "It has no survival value."
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Barry Eisler |
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0fa05eb
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And Harry's bug and video detector was blessedly quiescent.
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Barry Eisler |
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b5d9e9f
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She winced. "I'm glad you came." I didn't know what to make of the inconsistency between her reaction and her words. "You must have a lot of questions," I said. She shook her head. "I just want to make sure you enjoy yourself tonight." "I think I know why you're acting this way," I started to say. She cut me off with a suddenly raised hand. "How about that lap dance?" she asked. Her tone was inviting, but her eyes were somewhere between ser..
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Barry Eisler |
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c511e9c
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The mindfulness he spoke of was called nen in Japanese--an acknowledgment, an appreciation, of the importance of small things. The things that make living more worthwhile. And that, in my work, make it more probable, as well.
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Barry Eisler |
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7d7c30b
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He moves like a cat, hears like a dog, and hides like a rabbit. And strikes like a damn rattlesnake.
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Barry Eisler |
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04fdf8e
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There they were, fanned out behind him like two points at the base of a moving scalene triangle.
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Barry Eisler |
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dde524e
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If you want something you've never had before, you have to do something you've never done before.
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Barry Eisler |
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0dba592
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In some ways, the neighborhood was the poster child for bad zoning. There were shiny glass-and-steel condominiums across from corrugated and I-beam parking garages. Single-family homes perched alongside recycling plants and foundries. A new multistory school turned its proud granite facade away from its neighbor, a dilapidated relic of a car repair shop, like an ungrateful child ashamed of an ailing parent.
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Barry Eisler |
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767554b
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of eternity.
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Barry Eisler |
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c5c2809
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The months and days are the travelers of eternity. --Basho
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Barry Eisler |
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3413ba6
|
And divorce was the chemotherapy of marriage, so expensive and toxic that only couples in extremis would attempt it as a cure. And if half of marriages were so cancerous that they justified treatment with the equivalent of chemotherapy, what did that say about the others? How many of the nondivorced had just learned to live with the illness because the cure seemed even worse than the disease?
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Barry Eisler |
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5cd4191
|
A friend who loves Paris once told me, 'There aren't many things we humans need to do. We need to eat, we need to drink, we need to make love. And the French attitude is, okay, we should do those things very well.
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Barry Eisler |
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83a61ed
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But accurate insights might have helped me. Medicine isn't supposed to taste good--that's what candy is for. Medicine is supposed to make you better.
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Barry Eisler |
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cd4a0ad
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Trust your gut. When you felt something was off, you had to believe that feeling, even if you couldn't articulate the basis.
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Barry Eisler |
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eb3495f
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Gavin de Becker had written a great book on the topic--The Gift of Fear.
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Barry Eisler |
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ae72cac
|
And maybe on some level his approach was manipulative, but what mattered most was the way it made her feel. Like he understood her, without ever having to be heavy-handed about it.
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Barry Eisler |
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af8e58f
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Treat me well, and I'll treat you better. Treat me badly, and I'll treat you worse.
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Barry Eisler |
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e4ae77c
|
Kyou nite mo kyou natsukashiya... Though in Kyoto, I long for Kyoto...
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Barry Eisler |
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e58d91c
|
She'd always assumed that what she kept buried down deep was imperceptible to the people around her. But she hadn't ever pressure checked the notion the way it might be pressure checked now.
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Barry Eisler |
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19b8d33
|
There aren't many things we humans need to do. We need to eat, we need to drink, we need to make love. And the French attitude is, okay, we should do those things very well.
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Barry Eisler |
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fdec583
|
Strangeland's confidence in her, the risks she was willing to run . . . it was all producing a roiling mess of emotion she couldn't deal with right now. She managed to push it away and handed
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Barry Eisler |
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9b920de
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But we rarely see what we prefer to overlook.
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Barry Eisler |
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313744c
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A Fed, a local, and a consultant.
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Barry Eisler |
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f54712f
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Graham smiled and filled it all the way, then said, "What the hell" and did the same for his own. He took a sip and made an mmmmm sound. "That's a Peruvian varietal, from Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco. I can't get enough of their coffee. I have twenty pounds flown in every month, and it's barely enough for my habit. Say, you're from California, aren't you?"
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Barry Eisler |
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2aad822
|
But then, as seemed always to be the case when she found herself hit by a wave of happiness, or joy, or delight, there was an immediate undertow of sadness.
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Barry Eisler |
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551fc9e
|
I read it somewhere once." She laughed. "You did not." "I did. Okay, I wrote it down first. Then I read it. But still." --
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Barry Eisler |
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986abfc
|
His gal had thrown down, and he was going to follow her wherever that led.
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Barry Eisler |
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0ebbe4f
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Context had reinforced familiarity, and familiarity had blinded them to new possibilities.
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Barry Eisler |
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4f0932f
|
George Burns line? 'Sincerity--if you can fake that, you've got it made.
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Barry Eisler |
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b4bb91f
|
Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru
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Barry Eisler |
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f647e33
|
So much of being a good interrogator was just knowing how to actively listen to someone,
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Barry Eisler |
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3d29b14
|
Arrington smoked
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Barry Eisler |
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2fd8737
|
Because we're friends, dumbass. Friends stay in touch. I won't lie to you, you're so good at reading people, but sometimes you assume everyone else is just like you, and that ain't the way the world works. Most people don't prefer to go months without talking to another human. That's unusual. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it; in fact, there's not. I'm just saying you shouldn't be surprised to learn that the people in your life ..
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Barry Eisler |
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895976a
|
Glock with an exceptionally long magazine.
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Barry Eisler |
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0d9dd4d
|
Thirty-round mag,
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Barry Eisler |