Barry Eisler

“A vending machine hung tilted from the wall, advertising laundry soap at fifty yen a packet to customers who might as well…

— Barry Eisler

There's an awful lot of corruption in Japanese business and politics, corruption of the sort that can make for great setting for…

— Barry Eisler

“I thought of Musashi, the master swordsman, who wrote, You must think of neither victory nor of defeat, but only of cutting…

— Barry Eisler

“I’ve gotten used to hoping for so little that I seem to have lost any natural immunity to the emotion’s infection.”

— Barry Eisler

“Seriously protecting yourself calls for the annihilation of ties with society, ties that most people need the way they need oxygen.”

— Barry Eisler

“The walls flickered in the candlelight. The room felt close and warm, like an underground sanctuary.”

— Barry Eisler

“Between her hand over my heart and her hips at my crotch, she might as well have been administering a polygraph.”

— Barry Eisler

Paper publishers are doing everything they can to slow the transition to eBooks because, in a digital world, paper publishers' high hardback…

— Barry Eisler

The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isnt really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can…

— Barry Eisler

“People put out signals—body language, gait, clothes, facial expression, posture, attitude, speech, mannerisms—that can tell you where they’re from, what they do,…

— Barry Eisler

“Fat droplets of rain started spattering against the city’s concrete skin, against the glass windows of its eyes. A few people with…

— Barry Eisler

“I shifted my head slightly. The corners of our mouths brushed together. I felt her breath on my cheek. Then we were…

— Barry Eisler

“It took me a long time to learn that proving people wrong is purposeless, fighting stupidity is futile, and formal recognition prevents…

— Barry Eisler

“What makes me a hard target is that I have no fixed points in my life—no workplace, no address, no known associates—that…

— Barry Eisler

“Three guys just tried to kill me in Hong Kong.” “What?” “Three guys just tried to kill me in Hong Kong.” “I…

— Barry Eisler

“I left. I told myself again I wasn’t disappointed, I wasn’t even terribly surprised. I learned a long time ago not to…

— Barry Eisler

“But, like all indulgences that are valued not just for their product but for their process, the sento will never entirely disappear.…

— Barry Eisler

“I nodded my head at him and gave a small wave of acknowledgment, the gesture communicating, Oh there you are, good. I…

— Barry Eisler

“I told myself it was all right, I wasn’t disappointed, it was better this way. I wondered in a detached way whether…

— Barry Eisler

“The third floor was quieter still. For a few moments, I leaned against the railing surrounding the open center of the floor,…

— Barry Eisler

“I took off my shoes, as well, and followed her into the room. I’d left the lights on low so their reflection…

— Barry Eisler

“I walked for hours, marveling at the extent of the destruction. Cars drove through Daitokuji Temple. Mount Hiei, the birthplace of Japanese…

— Barry Eisler

“I might have asked for her number. I could have told her my visit had been extended, something like that. She was…

— Barry Eisler

“Two people, Chinese civilians, were heading toward me. Shit. I averted my eyes and changed my posture, dropping my shoulders, adopting a…

— Barry Eisler

“At the outset of the second of these Hong Kong excursions, I noticed an Arab standing in the lobby of the Macau…

— Barry Eisler

“I uploaded a message to Tatsu telling him I was going to check the place out and would let him know what…

— Barry Eisler

“We were quiet for a moment. Then I said, “Look, I’ve got an idea of what you feel for this woman, okay?…

— Barry Eisler

“When I was three or four meters away, one of them stood. The others continued to squat, watching, alert for whatever distraction…

— Barry Eisler

“Tokyo is so vast, and can be so cruelly impersonal, that the succor provided by its occasional oasis is sweeter than that…

— Barry Eisler

“I reached the end of the street and turned right. There they were, about twelve meters away. The Japanese guy had his…

— Barry Eisler

“I came to the first floor and looked out at the entranceway of the building. For a second I pictured the way…

— Barry Eisler

“The waiter brought the drinks. After he had moved silently away, I looked at her and said, “You’re not involved in any…

— Barry Eisler

“In the dim light her eyes looked more gray than blue. I liked the way the lighting softened her features, the way…

— Barry Eisler

I wandered the earth a mercenary, daring the gods to kill me but surviving because part of me was already dead.

— Barry Eisler

Publishing, legacy or indie, is a vehicle, and you can't opine about whether someone has chosen the right vehicle if you don't…

— Barry Eisler

“Her English, though accented, was idiomatic. She would have learned it young enough to pick up the idiom, but not quite young…

— Barry Eisler

“using the chrome and glass around me to gauge whether there was anyone to my rear trying to keep up.”

— Barry Eisler

After I sold my screenplay adaptation of 'Rain Fall' to Sony Pictures, I had no more creative involvement,

— Barry Eisler

Psychologically, it's always more pleasurable to blame others for our problems than it is to acknowledge our own responsibility.

— Barry Eisler

“People talk about morality. Sometimes I think there’s just what you can do, and what you can’t.”

— Barry Eisler