Ben Aaronovitch Quotes

Been there, I thought, done that, read The Silmarillion.

It’s a police rule of thumb that anything involving members of the public takes twice as long as you think it will.

God, I thought, Mum’s going to be upset if the rapture arrives and Jesus looks like Robin Williams.

And what they don’t want you to know, you definitely want to know.

“That’s assuming that the Singularity hasn’t already happened,” said Victor. “And we’re not sentient virtual personalities inhabiting a simulation of reality.”
“How would we know?” I said.

Police doctrine is, even if you’re waiting for someone to do something violent to your suspect, you should de-escalate the situation because at the very least a peaceful solution produces a ton less paperwork.

“When you say shades, what do you mean?” I asked. “Do you mean Fae?”
“I mean everything that’s not normal,” said Mrs. Chin.
“Like New Jersey,” said Stephen.

All diplomatic cars have distinctive plates that indicate status and nationality, for the ease and convenience of terrorists and potential kidnappers.

“Giant squids are pretty alien,” I said.
“Not to another giant squid,” said Beverley.

Police work," said Stefan, "is ninety per cent paperwork, nine per cent bullshit and one per cent horror.

Inside he had the soul of an accountant, but alas none of the facility with numbers.

“How about this then, Peter,” she said. “You’ve been part of something that no wizard has ever been part of before. You know something that’s not in their books.”
I wanted to say that lots of things weren’t in the libraries of the wise, including plate tectonics, molecular biology and the complete works of J. K. Rowling. But she’d probably say that I was missing the point.

Have you noticed that about journalists—all they really want to talk about is themselves.

God, money is so wasted on the rich.

Any abductions?" I asked.
"Loads," he said. "But none verified.