James Lee Burke

“Straight shooters always win”

— James Lee Burke

Louisiana is a fresh-air mental asylum.

— James Lee Burke

God bless the Reference Librarians

— James Lee Burke

“beautiful street in the Western world.”

— James Lee Burke

“Why don’t you try to make me feel bad?”

— James Lee Burke

“Don’t borrow trouble.”

— James Lee Burke

There's no substitute for loyalty.

— James Lee Burke

“god bless the world”

— James Lee Burke

“Colored or not, we all pick the white man's cotton.”

— James Lee Burke

There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.

— James Lee Burke

My experience has been that people who die for causes have few friends in death.

— James Lee Burke

Don't let anyone tell you that age purchases your freedom from fear of death.

— James Lee Burke

“I wanted to believe he was mad. Unfortunately, I no longer knew what madness was.”

— James Lee Burke

“...big as a horse turd floating in a milk shake." Wyatt Dixson”

— James Lee Burke

“Be your own man, even if you don’t add up to much.”

— James Lee Burke

“There are those who are made different in the womb.”

— James Lee Burke

Is there a design in the events of our lives? Or do things just happen, much like a junk yard falling down…

— James Lee Burke

“Sometimes your luck runs out and you have to accept that the life you planned was a dream written on water.”

— James Lee Burke

And every good artist knows that the gift comes from somewhere else, and it's there for a reason, and that's to make…

— James Lee Burke

“All our dreams and hopes become as naught, and evil men are allowed to hang their lanterns on our tombstones. What greater…

— James Lee Burke

“Jimmie would forever be the Renaissance humanist, bearing his faith and optimism like a white light inside a chalice.”

— James Lee Burke

“The human spirit is frail. People believe whatever they need to believe. I feel sorry for all of them.”

— James Lee Burke

“The armies of the night are faceless and mindless and the modern equivalent of Visigoths, but when they have a leader, their…

— James Lee Burke

The best thing about being a best-selling writer is being a best-selling writer. More seriously, today I can write full time and…

— James Lee Burke

“The band played “La Jolie Blon” a second time. For me, there is no more haunting ballad in the world. Its origins…

— James Lee Burke

“Through the screen, he could smell the evening as though it were a living presence, the purple and yellow flowers in his…

— James Lee Burke

But the participants [in war] never forgot the details of their experience, and like the Wandering Jew, they were condemned to remain…

— James Lee Burke

“Varina was breathing hard through her nose, her face pinched, not unlike a child’s. “You don’t know how mad you can make…

— James Lee Burke

When you find the right people, you never let go. The people who count are the ones who are your friends in…

— James Lee Burke

I wouldn't write anything autobiographical. If you've lived a life like Laurence of Arabia, it might be a consideration, but otherwise it's…

— James Lee Burke

“When a man molests a woman or girl, he steals her identity. You don't know who you are anymore. You don't have…

— James Lee Burke

“My experience with age it instills a degree of patience in some, leaves the virtuous spiritually unchanged, feeds the character defects in…

— James Lee Burke

I believe every...man remembers the girl he thinks he should have married. She reappears to him in his lonely moments, or he…

— James Lee Burke

In that moment, when watches and clocks misbehave and you feel a cold vapor wrap itself around your heart, you unconsciously draw…

— James Lee Burke

“I long ago became convinced that the most reliable source for arcane and obscure and seemingly unobtainable information does not lie with…

— James Lee Burke

“No one likes to be afraid. Fear is the enemy of love & faith & it robs us of our sleep &…

— James Lee Burke

“The winter was not really winter at all, and therein may lie Key West's greatest charm. If one does not have to…

— James Lee Burke

“But no one could say he hadn't gotten even. He could not count the field women whom he had sexually degraded and…

— James Lee Burke

If you don't compromise your gift, if you write each day as well as you can, and then submit your work and…

— James Lee Burke

“A tanker truck appeared far down the wavy surface of the highway, headlights on, its weight and shimmering cylindrical shape and dedicated…

— James Lee Burke