How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Change the color of your hair, you change the face. Yes, there are traces of discoloration, brittleness, dye. Wear glasses and a mustache, you're a different man. I'd guess you were in your middle to late thirties, but you could be ten years older, or five younger." (1.79)
Washburn explains to anonymous dude (not yet Bourne) that he seems designed (literally, through plastic surgery) for deception. The only thing we know about him is that he seems to be preparing to pretend to be somebody else.
Quote #2
"I called a woman who's a member of our delegation; she loathes Bertinelli and was in her room. We've worked together for several years and we're friends. I told her that if she heard anything about me to disregard it, I was perfectly all right. As a matter of fact, if anyone asked about me, she was to say I was with a friend for the evening—for the night if pressed." (9.142)
Marie gets to lie, too. It's an especially good lie, too, because it's a lie within a lie. Marie's telling her friend to lie by saying she was with a man—and then if pressed, she could say the truth (that she's sleeping with him)—which is also actually a lie (since she's not sleeping with Bourne yet, anyway). Are you following this? Bourne's covert identity was also designed as a lie-within-a-lie: he was supposed to be Cain, who was supposed to be Bourne, even though in reality, he's Webb, not Cain or Bourne. The novel likes tricky lies. Never tell just one when you can tell two at once.
Quote #3
"Your type's everywhere, d'Amacourt. It's in your clothes, the way you wear your hair, even your walk; you strut too much. A man like you doesn't get to be the vice-president of the Valois Bank without asking questions; you cover yourself. You don't make a smelly move unless you can save your own ass." (12.50)
D'Amacourt is the utterly corrupt Paris bank official. Other folks in the novel make a pretense to honesty or goodness—even Carlos pretends to an honor-among-thieves morality. But d'Amacourt just wants money, money, money, and, as Bourne says, to save his own skin. In this novel of lies, there's a purity to his dishonesty that is almost refreshing. It's almost as if he is more honest than the "honest" characters.