How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Carlos may be many things to many people, but among those who have benefited from his trust and generosity, there is loyalty. His informers and hirelings are not so readily for sale, although Cain has tried time and again." (17.181)
Lavier says that there is honor among thieves. Carlos has his own code and his own justice... supposedly. In fact, as the novel unfolds, Carlos systematically betrays pretty much all his minions, including Lavier herself. On a second read-through, this quote seems less like a defense of Carlos and more like a reiteration that he's a supervillain bad-guy liar.
Quote #8
"It goes deeper than lies, Jason," she said. "There's too much truth for lies alone." (18.135)
Marie is talking about the newspaper article that publicly implicates her in theft and murder. The article is mostly lies…but there are details about the bank which are true, and which are meant to send a message to Bourne to report to Treadstone. And there's something true about the newspaper's claim that Marie is a sort of criminal: she really is mixed up with some bad people these days.
Truth, here, is used to send a message—less to convey true information than to serve as its own code. Even truth can be a kind of lie. It's not that there's too much truth for lies, really; it's that the lies are so deep that even truth ends up as deception.
Quote #9
"The man called Jason Bourne," said Abbott..."is an American intelligence officer. There is no Cain, not the one Carlos believes. He's a lure, a trap for Carlos; that's who he is. Or was." (19.154)
So this is the truth. The irony is that Abbott, the creator of Treadstone, doesn't know if it's true anymore…and it is, in fact, not exactly true anymore: Bourne doesn't know that he's an intelligence officer, so he's kind of not an intelligence officer anymore. The truth has become a lie… which, in a way, makes the deception more perfect. Bourne is, after all, able to come close to completing his mission only after his mission stops being his mission. For spies, having the truth turn into a lie is maybe even better than knowing the truth in the first place.