Quotes About Surprise

You invited them without Lymond knowing?' said Danny Hislop. He wriggled into the circle. 'Can I be there when he hears about it?

Danny Hislop was not there, nor the artist called Blacklock. Riding between Lymond and the fresh-faced Knight of St John who did not like eagles, Chancellor asked after them. Ludovic d'Harcourt glanced at Lymond without answering. Lymond said, 'They are undergoing a course of correction. If in the event they are either correct or in the least chastened, I shall be surprised.

Adam said, 'Christ!' and Danny Hislop, wriggling past said, 'No. Lord Culter, I do declare.

A great many inferior people, Mr Crawford, have helped you over the years in your well-publicized career of adversity, but you mustn't be surprised if the circle begins to diminish. To go by what happened this evening, the man who has finally emerged from it all isn't worth helping.

Do you regret it?' said Sybilla. 'I would have kept it for you if I could. I did not know, you see, what you were to be.

I want you to slip it under Mademoiselle d'Albon's chamber door. If she opens it and throws an axe at you, come and tell me. If not, you may go back to bed.

Piero Strozzi closed his mouth, which had fallen ajar. 'Of course,' he said. 'You have a son, don't …' He roared. 'I beg your pardon. My foot slipped,' said Philippa. 'Have a date flan, and don't talk so much while the hautboys are playing. If you lose your voice, none of us will know what to do.

What had you expected? A viper, or a devil, or a ravening idiot; Milo with the ox on his shoulders, Angra-Mainyo prepared to do battle with Zoroaster, or the Golden Ass? Or didn't you know the family colouring? Richard hasn't got it. Poor Richard is merely Brown and fit to break bread with …

Nicholas had never before felt amused by anything to do with Simon. He divided twelve quickly by three and concluded that he had not been punched seriously on the head.

Oh damn!' said Lord Peter Wimsey at Piccadilly Circus.

Peter! Were you looking for a horse-shoe? No; I was expecting the horse, but the shoe is a piece of pure, gorgeous luck. And observation. I found it. You did. And I could kiss you for it. You need not shrink and tremble. I am not going to do it. When I kiss you, it will be an important event -- one of those things which stand out among their surroundings like the first time you tasted li-chee. It will not be an unimportant sideshow attached to a detective investigation.

I hope you won't mind, because I haven't shaved since this morning, but I'm going to take you round the next quiet corner and kiss you.

WHAT IN THE WORLD, Wimsey, are you doing in this Morgue?" demanded Captain Fentiman, flinging aside the Evening Banner with the air of a man released from an irksome duty.

Ah! I have never regretted Paradise Lost since I discovered that it contained no eggs-and-bacon.

to tell the reader what the detective has observed and deduced – but to make the observations and deductions turn out to be incorrect, thus leading up to a carefully manufactured surprise packet in the last chapter.

Exactly. He is the Most Unlikely Person, and that is why Sherlock Holmes would suspect him at once.

The basket was opened, and a ginger head emerged resentfully.

When she said 'Come in!' the commonplace formula seemed to take on a startling significance. For good or evil, she had called in something explosive from the outside world to break up the ordered tranquillity of the place;

If all the girls attending [the Yale prom] were laid end to end, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Friends come and go but I wouldn't have thought you'd be one of them

Well, well. Isn't it a small world? And a peach of a world, too. A true little corker.

So this is it, said Arthur, We are going to die. Yes, said Ford, except... no! Wait a minute! He suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. What's this switch? he cried. What? Where? cried Arthur, twisting round. No, I was only fooling, said Ford, we are going to die after all.

Life... is like a grapefruit. Well, it's sort of orangey-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It's got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have half a one for breakfast.

Ow! My brains!