Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from The Kill Artist:
“I suppose I needed to share it with her. I suppose I needed someone to forgive me.”
“The further we are from the last disaster, the closer we are to the next.”
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a prince among them.” —Numbers 13:1-2”
“would much rather do battle with a sworn enemy than with an enemy who finds expediency in posing as a friend.”
“Tariq said, “You never answered my question.” “Which question was that?” “Do you like fado music?” “I suppose it’s an acquired taste.” He smiled and added, “Like Lisbon itself. For some reason it reminds me of home.” “Fado is a music devoted to suffering and pain. That’s why it reminds you of home.” “I suppose you’re right.”
“headquartered”
“Isherwood was certain of one thing. If Gabriel ever hurt her, the way he hurt that little boy in Cornwall—God, what was his name? Pearl? Puck? No, Peel it was—well. . . . Unfortunately, there was not much he could do to Gabriel except never forgive him.”
“sometimes people die too soon. Mourn for them in private. Don’t wear your suffering on your sleeve like the Arabs. And when you’re finished mourning, get back on your feet and get on with life.”
“Politics is an exercise for the feebleminded, Emily. Politics has nothing to do with real life.”
“I don't like surprises. Because it's been in my experience that the surprise itself never quite lives up to the anticipation of the surprise. I've been let too many times.”
“My point is that revenge is good. Revenge is healthy. Revenge is purifying.”
“I would much rather do battle with a sworn enemy than with an enemy who finds expediency in posing as a friend.”
“By way of deception, thou shalt do war. —Motto of the Mossad”
“several proved particularly helpful: Every Spy a Prince, by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman; Gideon’s Spies, by Gordon Thomas; Israel: A History and The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War, by Martin Gilbert; The Gun and the Olive Branch, by David Hirst; By Way of Deception, by Victor Ostrovsky and Clair Hoy; The Hit Team, by David B. Tinnin with Dag Christensen; My Home, My Land, by Abu Iyad; The Quest for the Red Prince, by Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber; The Palestinians , by Jonathan Dimbleby; Arafat, by Alan Hart; and The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille, by Donna F. Ryan. Finally, to the”
“eyes”
“As he waited for daybreak he sifted through the individual scents that combine to create the unique fragrance of Jerusalem: sage and jasmine, honey and coffee, leather and tobacco, cypress and eucalyptus.”
“Two Montreals, two realities, thought Jacqueline as they walked back to the hotel. In one reality they had just gone shopping. In the other Tariq had spent an hour checking to see if he was being followed, and Tariq had taken possession of his gun.”
“The prime minister listened raptly as Shamron brought him up-to-date. He was by nature a schemer. He had begun his career in the cutthroat atmosphere of academia, then moved to the hornets’ nest at the Foreign Ministry. By the time he entered the political arena, he was well versed in the black arts of bureaucratic treachery. His meteoric rise through the party ranks was attributed to his powerful intellect and his willingness to resort to subterfuge, misdirection, and outright blackmail to get what he wanted.”
“A spy’s work is never done.” “But these days all the smart boys do their compulsory service in the IDF and then run like hell. They want to make money and talk on their cell phones from the cafés of Ben Yehuda Street. We used to get only the best. Like you, Gabriel. Now we get the ones who are too stupid or lazy to make it in the real world.” “Change your recruiting tactics.”
“What’s your point?” “My point is that revenge is good. Revenge is healthy. Revenge is purifying.” “Revenge only leads to more killing and more revenge. For every terrorist we kill, there’s another boy waiting to step forward and pick up the stone or the gun. They’re like sharks’ teeth: break one and another will rise in its place.”
“German girls made him uneasy. Reflexively his eyes wandered over her—across her large, rounded breasts, up and down her long legs. She mistook his attention for flirting, tilted her head, smiled at him through a lock of flaxen hair, suggested a coffee in the café across the square. The restorer apologized and said he had to leave. “Besides,” he said, looking up at the soaring nave, “this is Stephansdom, Fraülein. Not a pickup bar.”
“By way of deception, thou shalt do war.—Motto of the Mossad”
“the further we are from our last disaster, the closer we are to our next.”
“Snow drifted over the Herengracht as he made his way slowly toward the houseboat on the Amstel. A pair of cyclists glided silently past, leaving ribbons of black in the fresh snow. Evening in a foreign city always made him melancholy. Lights coming on, offices letting out, bars and cafés slowly filling. Through the broad windows of the canal houses he could see parents coming home to children, husbands coming home to wives, lovers reuniting, warm lights burning. Life, he thought. Someone else’s life, someone else’s homeland.”
“If Tariq could determine that Israeli intelligence was involved, he would immediately be transformed from the hunted to the hunter. He thought of an operation he had conducted while he was still with Jihaz el-Razd, the PLO intelligence arm. He had identified an Office agent working with diplomatic cover from the Israeli embassy in Madrid. The officer had managed to recruit several spies within the PLO, and Tariq decided it was time to pay him back. He sent a Palestinian to Madrid posing as a defector. The Palestinian met with the Israeli officer inside the embassy and promised to turn over sensitive intelligence about PLO leaders and their personal habits. At first the Israeli balked. Tariq had anticipated this, so he had given his agent several pieces of true, relatively harmless”
“For every terrorist we kill, there’s another boy waiting to step forward and pick up the stone or the gun. They’re like shark’s teeth: break one and another will rise in it’s place.”
