"There was no more exciting place in South America to be in April, 1948, than Bogotá, Colombia." (7)

"Ever since Bolivar's death in 1830, Colombia has been proudly Democratic, but it has never quite got the hang of peaceful political evolution." (12_

"Anyone can be a criminal, but to be an outlaw demands a following. The outlaw stands for something, usually through no effort of his own." (14)

"Unlike any other outlaw before, he understood the potency of legend. He crafted his and nurtured it. He was a vicious thug, but he had a social conscience." (15)

"Pablo was right about one thing. One of the strongest forces behind the move against him, and Colombia's other cocaine billionaires was the United States." (41)

"He was, if anything, an ugly caricature of his country, unthinkably rich and natural resources, but violent, stoned, defiant, and proud." (47)

"By the end of the summer of 1989, Pablo Escobar was forty...