The largest website for English phrases and quotes

The largest website for English phrases and quotes

Category: William Landay

I am interested in computers and technology, and art, photography, and design.

Art, Technology, I Am

I did not speak. I have found in any Q&A, in court, in witness interviews, wherever, often the best thing you can do is wait, say nothing. The witness will want to fill the awkward silence. He will feel a vague compassion to keep talking, to prove he is not holding back, to prove he is smart and in the know, to earn your trust.

courtroom-drama, silence

So I got on with the business of lawyering away at the evidence. Minimizing it. Defending Jacob.

defending-jacob, evidence, mystery

This is an aspect of crime stories I never fully appreciated until I became one: it is so ruinously expensive to mount a defense that, innocent or guilty, the accusation is itself a devastating punishment. Every defendant pays a price.

defense, law, lawyers, punishment

I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to listen. You know, being confident isn’t the same as being right.

crime-fiction, law, suspense, twist

But sometimes you can’t figure everything out because you can’t ever really understand other people. You can’t understand why they do what they do. You just have to accept a little mystery, Ben. People are mysterious, the world is mysterious. You can’t know everything. You’re not supposed to. This isn’t a history book. It’s just the world. It’s a messy place.

inspirational, life-and-living, the-world

We move through time like a man in a rowboat, looking back even as we move forward.

But sometimes you can’t figure everything out because you can’t ever really understand other people. You can’t understand why they do what they do. You just have to accept a little mystery, Ben. People are mysterious, the world is mysterious. You can’t know everything. You’re not supposed to. This isn’t a history book. It’s just the world. It’s a messy place.

inspirational, life-and-living, the-world