Why We Die Quotes

“Don't. Don't do anything. Just go. Now."
It was always possible that if you very quickly told a man four times to do something, he'd get the message.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Things weren’t always better with coffee, but they were reliably worse without it.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“He looked like a posterboy for something expensive but ultimately soulless, like alcohol-free lager, or a New Labour policy initiative.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“That was the process in a nutshell, really. Your body did what it was going to do. You took steps in mitigation, but the face you were growing into was already there.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“A scratching noise made her turn, but it was only a cat, its paws clicking on a drain cover. The look it granted her was part contempt, part indifference; all cat.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Trains at night were a melancholy sound. They rendered every Country song Zoë’d ever heard redundant.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Katrina touched her cheek. Purple or blue; black or crimson. What is your favourite colour?”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Trent didn’t feel drunk, which was alarming. He’d been drinking all day. If he wasn’t drunk, he’d possibly turned some evolutionary corner.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“She flipped the light switch in passing, but nothing happened. It was an immutable law that bulbs only went when there was no spare on the premises.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“It was an immutable law that bulbs only went when there was no spare on the premises.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“clothed it in flesh, and painted it in action? And this was her father facing the camera, as if the photographer, coaxing the required reaction, had asked What makes you smile? and he had replied The muscles at the corner of your mouth. They make you smile.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Children should reconcile you to your own mortality. All parenthood had done for him had been make him aware of his child’s inevitable end.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“She refused a cup of tea for obvious reasons, and returned to the car, reminding herself to jot down numberplates if any of the cited infractions occurred. Pink wool, white hair—the old duck might be Miss Marple, and come checking.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“It would not simply be the end of Zoë Boehm. It would be the end of everything—of armchairs, tap water, curtains: everything. The fact that they would continue for other people didn’t count.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Its burning smell mingled with others—with the wine; with the trace of her perfume hanging in the air; with his own bodily odour—and all of it produced a self-disgust so enormous, he wished he could disappear.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“His body would have slackened further into that Babapapa shape men declined into; he’d have become seedier, the way men on their own did.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“It’s medicinal, he wanted to say. It would stop the pain, he meant. A smart woman had once remarked that what put you off drugs was the embarrassing slang you had to use.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“He returned to the book he wasn’t reading. Words swam into vision, took their usual route to his brain, and evaporated immediately, leaving no discernible impression.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Rediscover the traditional art of ear-coning, under a trained therapist.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Women choose men hoping they'll change. Men choose women hoping they won't.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die

“Two years older. His body would have slackened further into that Babapapa shape men declined into; he’d have become seedier, the way men on their own did. Would be making his shirts last an extra day. And there’d never be anyone else again, because who would love him now? He’d been lucky the first time. Luck wouldn’t happen twice. And he really didn’t think he could take another unlucky day. The important word here was really.”
― Mick Herron, Why We Die