Charing Cross Road was once the bookselling heart of London and disreputable enough to avoid the multinational chains in their unceasing quest to tur… - Ben Aaronovitch

If they were ugly, Peter, would you care half so much?" asked Nightingale. "There are some hideous things out there that can talk and reason, and I wonder if you would be quite so quick to rush to their defense."
"Maybe not," I said. "But that just makes me shallow, it doesn't make me wrong.

There’s nothing like having your girlfriend talk in geological time to make you feel insignificant.

It’s like with germ warfare. They weaponise germs for aggression and we say we study weaponised germs purely for defensive purposes. Nobody likes to admit they’re doing it but everybody knows everybody else is doing it.