1. "Okay, tough guy. Let’s see what you’ve got."
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Ilona Andrews, Burn for Me
2. "What you g-g-gonna do, tough guy? Tickle Toothless to d-d-death?"
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Cressida Cowell, How to Speak Dragonese
3. "Hiring a guy with more confirmed kills than college credits was a tough sell."
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Chuck Hogan, Devils in Exile
4. "she loved the contrast between his tough-guy image and the sensitive heart he guarded so well."
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Brenda Novak, When Snow Falls
5. "You know, for a tough guy with a uniform and a gun, you’re basically a bunny-loving tree-hugger."
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Pamela Clare, Barely Breathing
6. "I came from a real tough neighborhood. Once a guy pulled a knife on me. I knew he wasn't a professional, the knife had butter on it."
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Quote by Rodney Dangerfield
7. "Supposed to be a big guy, three months in the Keys. Costello told us people were talking about a big guy, been there three months, worked nights in a bar. We went to see him. Big tough guy, but he said he wasn’t Jack Reacher. So?"
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Lee Child, Tripwire
8. "Two heavyset, rough-looking men were arguing about politics, and he was struck anew by a thought he used to have often when he lived here: there is no such thing as a French tough guy. A French tough guy, even if he’s tough as nails, speaks French, and therefore isn’t very tough at all. These men looked like boxers, but they were speaking a feminine language and sipping daintily from tiny espresso cups. Schiller, six-foot-something and wide, always felt terribly manly in France, the land of fragile men."
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Brian Morton, Starting Out in the Evening
9. "I turned away, took a deep breath, and sheathed the weapon. I never know what to say after I've intimidated someone; I ought to keep a list of tough-guy remarks."
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Steven Brust, Dragon
10. "Most puzzling was his timidity. Giuliani was supposed to be a tough guy, but in the face of attacks by his opponents, his performance had been as limp as an overcooked Chinatown noodle."
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John Heilemann, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons