Graham Brack > Quotes

“Whoever has the world’s plenty and sees a brother in need but shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how can the love of God be within him?’ translated Vermeer, fairly loosely. ‘Indeed, Father.”
― Graham Brack, Death in Delft

“I don’t know what it is about lute-players. I might, perhaps, exempt those who are the personal musicians of our great men, but the itinerant lutenists wander from inn to inn, frequently offering to play in exchange for food, drink and shelter for the night. As a result, they eat and drink lustily, to put it mildly, and that’s not the only thing they do lustily. If I were the father of daughters, I should counsel them strictly to have nothing to do with anyone with a lute.”
― Graham Brack, Untrue till Death

“Mucha steered Banda through the door, while Slonský picked up the wet towel and the field telephone and walked off down the corridor”
― Graham Brack, Lying and Dying

“The life of underlings must be a very difficult one, I thought; if they refer too much they are thought fussy and lacking in initiative, whereas if they refer too little they are chastised for slackness in their duties. As one who spent much of his life as an underling I am only too aware that pleasing one’s masters is never as straightforward as they would have you believe.”
― Graham Brack, The Lying Dutchman

“There’s nobody as self-righteous as someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
― Graham Brack, Death On Duty

“Stabat mater dolorosa juxta Crucem lacrimosa, dum pendebat Filius.”
― Graham Brack, Death in Delft

“There are many reasons why nations win battles, and I am sure that the brilliance or otherwise of their commanders is only a partial cause. Having met some senior army generals, it surprises me that we have ever won anything, but I imagine the other side’s officers must have been even dimmer. Come to think of it, entering a profession in which you are uncommonly likely to be killed is not an obvious mark of intelligence.”
― Graham Brack, The Vanishing Children

“Vlk was beginning to slip off the Peak of Volubility and was heading for either the Trough of Insensibility or the Weepy Place of Sentimentality,”
― Graham Brack, Laid In Earth

“If you imprisoned everyone who had given or received a bribe, our government would be in the hands of about three men. And they would be the ones too stupid to ask for a bribe.”
― Graham Brack, The Vanishing Children

“A Catholic died and went to Heaven. After a few days St Peter came to see him. ‘How do you like Heaven?’ he asked. ‘It’s very nice,’ said the man. ‘Good,’ said St Peter. ‘I’m glad you’re settling in. Do you have any questions for me?’ ‘Yes,’ said the man, ‘there is one. I notice in a distant part of Heaven there is a section surrounded by a high wall. What is that?’ St Peter smiled. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘that’s where we put the Calvinists. They think they’re the only ones here.”
― Graham Brack, Murder In Maastricht

“It was warm and tender, like being attacked by a mound of pillows.”
― Graham Brack, The Lying Dutchman

“Taking William at his word, I hired a horse for the journey to The Hague. It was a bay gelding called Zeus, apparently because he repeatedly issued thunderclaps from his rear end. As I walked through the villages I found myself unnecessarily explaining to passers-by that the eruptions were the fault of the horse, since they seemed to be looking at me censoriously.”
― Graham Brack, The Lying Dutchman

“and”
― Graham Brack, Death in Delft

“Thank you, I feel much better,’ I said. Actually I did not, but when people ask “How are you?” they rarely want an accurate answer. Even my physician has to be reminded that if I were well I wouldn’t be calling on him, so it may be worth his while listening to my answer to his question.”
― Graham Brack, The Noose's Shadow

“Not snore, perhaps,’ I conceded. ‘It’s more like a pig snuffling.”
― Graham Brack, The Vanishing Children

“He wore an old-fashioned black sugarloaf hat with a silver buckle,”
― Graham Brack, Murder In Maastricht

“You aren’t cowed, are you?”
― Graham Brack, Laid In Earth

“Accidents happen, even in the best-kept torture chambers.”
― Graham Brack, The Noose's Shadow

“Couldn’t you lie a bit to cheer me up?’ ‘No”
― Graham Brack, The Ladies' Lounge

“Beniamino was a scheming, unprincipled scoundrel, with loose morals, unhealthy appetites and an utter indifference to the truth; but then I could simply have told you that he was a lute-player and saved myself a lot of words.”
― Graham Brack, Untrue till Death

“but”
― Graham Brack, The Ladies' Lounge

“Krob tapped his teeth was his pencil.”
― Graham Brack, The Ladies' Lounge

“love of money is the root of all evil (First letter to Timothy, chapter six,”
― Graham Brack, Untrue till Death

“let Mechtild cook instead.”
― Graham Brack, Untrue till Death

“But on this occasion Rajka had walked upstairs and along the corridor and was now filling the doorway”
― Graham Brack, The Ladies' Lounge

“With respect,’ I began — and I know that this introduction guarantees that what follows conveys no respect at all”
― Graham Brack, Untrue till Death

“flabby thinkers.”
― Graham Brack, Untrue till Death

“I’ve got one aim, to find Irina Gruberová’s killer, and that’s what I’ll do, whatever it takes. She deserves that. And,”
― Graham Brack, Lying and Dying

“When Slonský returned to his office he was buoyed up by the team’s progress after a horrible”
― Graham Brack, The Ladies' Lounge

“An excuse implies fault and is an attempt to mitigate any blame for that apparent fault by demonstrating a limitation of freedom of action, thereby lessening responsibility. Where there is no blame there can be no excuse. A reason, on the other hand, is a justification or explanation of one’s behaviour grounded on facts or logic and intended to enable the recipient of the reason to understand why events have turned out as they have.”
― Graham Brack, The Moers Murders