Quotes from James P. Blaylock

Strange things are said to have happened in this world — some are said to be happening still — but half of them, if I'm any judge, are lies.

Considering the number of ghastly love poems that had been written and which seemed fairly clearly a waste of everyone's time, Jonathan couldn't help but be surprised that coffee hadn't been thus immortalized.

There was a time when that kind of thing looked like the kingdom of heaven, but somewhere along the line it had lost its glow. Maybe that was just the cost of growing up. And maybe the cost of growing up was too high.

He'd given up squid merchanting when he'd found that the creatures inhabited his dreams, all leggy and cold.

If he set out right now to make a list of the things he had taken for granted in his life, he'd go broke buying paper.

Bottle cork, bottle cork There's naught within but lees. The glowing eyes of Jack O'Lantern Dance on evening's breeze; Goblin fires light the wood And flicker through the trees. The clouds, they say, are whipping cream, The oceans seas of teas, The rain a fall of diamonds, The moon a ball of cheese.

There was something wonderful, though, in doing useless work. You could turn it into a sort of art.

She got that response often enough – the unearned appreciation of men who admired her appearance. She didn't find it flattering, but it was sometimes useful.

So the leaves were falling slowly in the cool breezes, and of those left on the trees few were green. Most were brown and red and gold, and when they piled up on the ground and were rained on, they smelled awfully good, although it was a sort of lonesome, musty smell.

And yet I'm sure, Cheeser, that in this world of ours, science doesn't hold the only key; it only unlocks one of the doors – and perhaps the side door at that.

The April weather was so altogether pleasant that it came near to making up for the fearful lunch that would at any moment arrive to stare at St. Ives from a china plate.

We're awash in magical totems. Surrounded by little portholes looking out into infinity, at glimpses of immortality, if you bring it down to earth. The most trivial flotsam and jetsam scattered on the beach and cluttering shelves of junk stores means something, if you look at it from the right angle, through the right sort of spectacles.