Bill > Bill's Quotes

“Bond had left his ammunition back at the motel but he had his gun and his wallet which, he decided, was all you really needed to get by in America.”
― Anthony Horowitz. Trigger Mortis.

“You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face”
― Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice

“Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.”
― Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”
― Mortimer J. Adler

“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

“He methodically basted the dark skin of the Alsatian, which he had stuffed with garlic and herbs.
"One rule in life", he murmured to himself. "If you can smell garlic, everything is all right".”
― J.G. Ballard, High-Rise

“No,"Ito said gently, "we will not be needing soldiers. Accountants will do nicely."
Mutsuhito frowned. "How does one storm a castle with accountants ?"
"One buys it, sir.”
― Natasha Pulley

“We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams.”
― H.G. Wells

“Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“My name is Uhtred. I am the son of Uhtred, who was the son of Uhtred and his father was also called Uhtred.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom

“Yes, Siobhan ?" Rebus said by way of an answer.
"Page wants you inside the tent rather than out."
"Is that even possible ?"
"You'd be acting in a consultative capicity."
"Like Sherlock Holmes ? Would I need invoices & stuff ? And a housekeeper and a sidekick ?”
― Ian Rankin, Even Dogs in the Wild

“Do you think I'd carry a gun in a suit like this ? My tailor would throw a fit.”
― Leslie Charteris, The Saint Plays with Fire

“You're a bastard," I said.

"Uhtred," he began, but could find nothing more to say.

"You're a piece of weasel-shit," I said, "you're an earsling."

"I'm a king," he said, trying to regain his dignity.

"So you're a royal piece of weasel-shit. An earsling on a throne.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“The church, we're to meet in the church. Do try to wipe that blood off your mail, Uhtred. We're an embassy!”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Don’t spend a lot of time imagining the worst-case scenario. It rarely goes down as you imagine it will, and if by some fluke it does, you will have lived it twice.”
― Michael J. Fox, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future...: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned

“Lamb said, ‘If you had issues with him, I could have spoken to HR. Arranged an intervention.’ He tapped Moody’s shoulder with his foot. ‘Breaking his neck without going through your line manager, that shit stays on your record.”
― Mick Herron, Slow Horses

“Rise, red as the dawn.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen

“The floor of the passageway was lined with an intricate mosaic of a big, black hound. Underneath were written the words of warning that had served property owners for at least two thousand years. Cave canem. Beware of the dog.”
― Daniel Godfrey, New Pompeii

“Lignin, an organic polymer found in trees, is chemically similar to vanillin, the primary extract of the vanilla bean. So when trees are made into books and kept for long periods of time, the lignin in the paper breaks down and starts to smell like vanilla.
This is why antiquarian books, and secondhand bookshops, smell so damn good.”
― Jen Campbell, The Bookshop Book

“Wyrd bið ful āræd. Fate is inexorable.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Warriors of the Storm

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”
― Anais Nin

“I'm called the Saint," he murmured. "But don't let us get melodramatic about it, son. The last man who got melodramatic with me was hanged at Exeter six months back. It don't seem to be healthy!”
― Leslie Charteris, Enter the Saint

“All his life Harry Bosch believed he had a mission. And to carry out that mission he needed to be bulletproof. He needed to build himself and his life so that he was invulnerable, so that nothing and no one could ever get to him.

All of that changed on the day he was introduced to the daughter he didn’t know he had. In that moment he knew he was both saved and lost. He would be forever connected to the world in the way only a father knew.

- "Nine Dragons" by Michael Connelly”
― Michael Connelly, Nine Dragons

“I have waited twenty years for this phone call . . . and all this time I thought it would go away. I knew I would always be sad for my sister. But I thought the other would go away.”

“What is the other, Henrik?” Though he knew the answer.

“Anger . . . I am still angry, Detective Bosch.”

Bosch nodded. He looked down at his desk, at the photos of all the victims under the glass top. Cases and faces. His eyes moved from the photo of Anneke Jespersen to some of the others. The ones he had not yet spoken for.

“So am I, Henrik,” he said. “So am I.”

- "The Burning Room" by Michael Connelly”
― Michael Connelly, The Burning Room

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Concealing the Ripper was not a Masonic conspiracy, but a conspiracy of Her Majesty's executive, who almost without exception were Freemasons. In other words, it was a conspiracy of the System.”
― Bruce Robinson, They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper

“Their wings will shadow the sun, their breath will scorch the earth, and their fire will consume the righteous!"
"So we all die ?"
"No, no, no! We fight them!"
"How do you fight a dragon ?" I asked him.
"With prayer, boy, with prayer."
"So we all die.”
― Bernard Cornwell

“The Ripper was smart, but not that smart. It is simply an insult to the Victorian police to believe that detectives like Moore, Reid & Abberline couldn't have caught this prick in their sleep.”
― Bruce Robinson, They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper

“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”
― Malcolm X