Quotes from Ben Aaronovitch

Now I was used to it, the bell-like silence was louder than ever, and I was starting to get undertones of orange blossom and incense. You have to be careful with this stuff or you begin to sound like a wine taster—with about the same amount of meaningless bollocks.

Most archaeology in London these days is rescue archaeology – projects designed to preserve as much as possible from the relentless cash-driven redevelopment. It's not a new problem. Ask a medievalist about Victorian cellars or an Iron Age specialist about medieval ploughing – but take snacks, because you're going to be there for a while.

Taking a statement from anyone can be a long process on account of the fact that your average member of the public wouldn't know the truth if it donned a pink tutu and danced in front of them singing the Chicken Song. This

Fish and chip night was a Kumar family tradition that dated back to when Jaget was courting his wife and they used to meet in the last white English-owned fish and chip shop in Wembley on the basis that none of their relatives would go in there. "It

People are often short-sighted and stupid, right up to the point where they're fucking perceptive—that point usually being the most inconvenient moment possible.

I happened to know for a fact that the whole of Belgravia nick were running a pool on how long I would last and how I would go—the options being death, medical discharge (physical), medical discharge (psychological), indefinite disciplinary suspension, sacked for misconduct, secondment to Interpol and, with just one vote, ascension to a higher plane of existence. I suspected the last one was a bit unlikely.

I was pleased to see that even back in the glory days of the Folly people left their mugs of tea on their magical textbooks.

The laws of thermodynamics were very clear on the subject – all debts must be paid in full.

We traced a payment from one Antem Sergeyevich Yershov, a mid-tier oligarch,' said Silver. Mid-tier meaning that he was merely obscenely wealthy, rather than functionally an independent nation state in his own right.

I woke in the hour before dawn, stuck in that strange state where the memory of your dreams is still powerful enough to motivate your actions.

Abigail stared suspiciously at Lesley. "Why are you wearing a mask?" she asked. "Because my face fell off," said Lesley. Abigail considered this for a moment and then nodded. "Okay," she said.

There's always a secret door," I said. "That's why you always need a thief in your party.

Whatever you see, he'd said, take as long a look as you need to get used to it, to accept it, and then move on as if nothing has changed.

Leslie said that the capacity not to notice a traditional Dutch folk-dancing band walk up behind you was not a survival characteristic in the complex fast-paced world of the modern policing environment. I'd like to point out that I was trying to give directions to a slightly deaf tourist at the time and anyway it was a Swedish dance troupe.

Sometimes I wonder whether, if I'd been the one that went for coffee and not Lesley May, my life would have been much less interesting and certainly much less dangerous. Could it have been anyone, or was it destiny? When I'm considering this I find it helpful to quote the wisdom of my father, who once told me, 'Who knows why the fuck anything happens?' Covent

If they were ugly, Peter, would you care half so much?" asked Nightingale. "There are some hideous things out there that can talk and reason, and I wonder if you would be quite so quick to rush to their defence." "Maybe not," I said. "But that just makes me shallow, it doesn't make me wrong.

I turned right onto the A410 which went north with suspiciously Roman straightness toward Aymestrey, which is less a village than a diorama of the last six hundred years of English vernacular architecture stretched along either side of the road.

I found that when people are nursing a grievance it's a waste of time trying to explain the ubiquitous nature of coincidence in the universe. People always want things to happen for a reason.

The Fire Brigade recognise only two kinds of people at a fire, victims and obstacles, and if you don't want to be either it's best to stay back.

I had found the upper limit of my courage. Fortunately for me, there is no known lower limit to human stupidity.

Never diss somebody's mum, never play chess with the Kurdish mafia, and never lie down with a woman who's more magical than you are. I

An argument," said Dr. Walid. "It's an argument of wizards.

Phillip told me proudly that his mum had ceased to be a practicing Catholic the day after he came out. "She says she will go back to the Church the day it apologizes," he said.

It gave me "the eye"—the fearsome gaze that sheepdogs use to keep their charges in line. But I gave it "the look"—the stare that policemen use to keep members of the public in a state of randomized guilt.