I guess under the right circumstances, a man will do just about anything.
Make friends with fear, Lucien always said, because it will not go away, and it will destroy you if left uncontrolled.
They say a woman marries a man with the belief she can change him, and she can’t. A man marries a woman with the belief that she won’t change, and she does.
You count the years until you get a varsity jersey, then you’re a hero, an idol, a cocky bastard because in this town you can do no wrong. You win and win and you’re the king of your own little world, then poof, it’s gone. You play your last game and everybody cries. You can’t believe it’s over. Then another team comes right behind you and you’re forgotten.
I’ve never understood people who grind through a book they don’t really like, determined to finish it for some unknown reason.
Appalachia was Appalachia, regardless of boundaries someone had set an eternity ago. A land of breathtaking beauty, of steep hills and rolling mountains.
It takes just one, he says over and over. You hear that all the time in this business. One big case, and you can retire. That’s one reason lawyers do so many sleazy things, like full-color ads in the yellow pages, and billboards, and placards on city buses, and telephone solicitation. You hold your nose, ignore the stench of what you’re doing, ignore the snubs and snobbery of big-firm lawyers, because it takes only one.
I believe in God,” he said, truthfully but weakly. “It’s easy to say that,” she said, her words still slow and soft. “And I don’t doubt you. But saying is one thing, living is another matter.
And until we can see each other as equals, justice is never going to be even-handed. It will remain nothing more than a reflection of our own prejudices.
Like so many, this trial is not about the truth; it’s about winning.
Billing was the lifeblood of the firm. Everything revolved around it.
He did smile at her, though, but she did not return the smile. Her teeth were somewhere in the house.
I learned a long time ago not to waste time analyzing why judges do the things they do.
I thought they were honest.’ ‘They are, but they’re bankers, remember.
If a prosecutor gets caught cheating, he either gets reelected or elevated to the bench. Our system never holds a bad prosecutor accountable.
It’s a sad culture. People live in a frenzy. They work all the time to make money to buy things to impress other people. They’re measured by what they own.
A hundred years earlier, in Hopt v. Utah, the Supreme Court ruled that a confession is not admissible if it is obtained by operating on the hopes or fears of the accused, and in doing so deprives him of the freedom of will or self-control necessary to make a voluntary statement. In 1897, the Court, in Bram v. United States, said that a statement must be free and voluntary, not extracted by any sorts of threats or violence or promises, however slight. A.
He hadn’t hit her in several years, but when you’ve been beaten you never forget it. The bruises go away but the scars remain, deep, hidden, raw. You stay beaten. It takes a real coward to beat a woman.
And every defendant, regardless of how despicable the person or his crime, is entitled to a lawyer. Most laymen don’t understand this and don’t care. I don’t care either. This is my job.
Theo explained, in what he thought was perfect Spanish, that Julio needed extra help with his algebra. Evidently, she did not understand perfect Spanish because she asked Julio what Theo was talking about.