I, Ripper Quotes

“Your idealism will get you killed or, worse, knighted, and you’ll spend the rest of your days among fools and MPs. As for me, the chance to refuse an audience with the queen would be exquisite.”
― Stephen Hunter, I, Ripper: A Novel

“I was in a delirium of destruction, as if the body were an insult to the philosophy of my life, and only in destroying it could I reclaim my sanity.”
― Stephen Hunter, I, Ripper

“And then there are the Germans. Do you know, they form words by just sticking them together, so that their word for ‘Gatling gun’ literally translates into ‘mechanicaldeviceshootingwithoutcockingrifle?’ The words get longer still. No word is too long for a German because it’s quite impossible to bore a German. You cannot entertain a Norwegian, you cannot bore a German, and you cannot educate an American or a chimpanzee.”
― Stephen Hunter, I, Ripper: A Novel

“You cannot entertain a Norwegian, you cannot bore a German, and you cannot educate an American or a chimpanzee.”
― Stephen Hunter, I, Ripper: A Novel

“Almost there! Those are not words any writer pines to hear. Much more preferable is “masterpiece” or “timeless brilliance” or “it shall live forever.”
― Stephen Hunter, I, Ripper: A Novel

“Chanters, second-edition sellers, boardwalkers, strawers, mountebanks, clowns, jugglers, conjurors, grease removers, nostrum vendors, fortune-tellers, French polishers, turnpike sailors, various classes of lurkers and peepers, stenographic-card sellers, racetrack-card sellers.”
― Stephen Hunter, I, Ripper: A Novel

“I’m far too intelligent to be brave, thank you very much.”
― Stephen Hunter, I, Ripper: A Novel