Ben Aaronovitch Quotes

“So the moon effects magic, why?”
“I’m working on several theories,” I said. “But I’m currently favoring the hypothesis that the moon has a seemingly arbitrary effect on magic because it likes to piss me off.”
“That’s a theory with a high degree of applicability to other spheres of life,” he said.

None of this was real.
But I’ve learned that just because something isn’t real doesn’t mean it’s not important.

Sometimes when someone tells you not to go somewhere, it’s better not to go there.

Still magic, like policing, has always been much more about the practice than the theory.

I’ll say this for the Queen. She was brave—or possibly stupid. It’s easy to mistake the two.

Despite being the oldest part of London, the Square Mile has a faster architectural churn than anywhere else in the city. Occasionally it throws up something exciting, innovative and modern…but mostly it doesn’t. Architects like a bit of volume, and financiers like floor space. The easiest way to maximize both is to build a cube—which is why ninety-nine per cent of all office buildings are boxes with lobbies.

Nice," said Abigail. "Very plausible."
"Yeah, but just because it's plausible doesn't mean it's true.

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

It was a good plan, and like all plans since the dawn of time, this would fail to survive contact with real life.

None of those choices seemed likely, but if I’ve learned one thing on the job, it is that a coincidence can kill someone just as easily as malice.

There were a couple of mentions of drones, but the assumption was that they were operated by the police, the gangs, space lizards or all three at once. The media were continuing their comforting lack of interest in things that didn’t fit their various agendas.

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

You can't die of jazz," said Dr. Walid. "Can you?"
I thought of Fats Navarro, Billie Holiday, and Charlie Parker who, when he died, was mistaken by a coroner for a man twice his real age.
"You know," I said, "I think you'll find you can.

Could it have been anyone, or was it destiny? When I’m considering this I find it helpful to quote the wisdom of my father, who once told me, “Who knows why the fuck anything happens?”

Blackstone’s Police Operational Handbook recommends the ABC of serious investigation: Assume nothing, Believe nothing, and Check everything.