Paul Cornell > Quotes

“He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And... he's wonderful. - Tim Latimer”
― Paul Cornell

“John Smith: Mankind doesn't need warfare and bloodshed to prove itself. Everyday life can provide honour and valour. Let's hope that from now on this country can find its heroes in smaller places. In the most ordinary of deeds.”
― Paul Cornell

“Rumpty!" he muttered, which was very rude if you were one of the few people in the universe who understood what it meant.”
― Paul Cornell, Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka

“The brilliant escape, the funny line to cap it, despite the lack of timing. And the girl was still dead. The last act had not materialised. The world, and himself, remained so far from what they should be: so imperfect.”
― Paul Cornell, Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka

“John: I'm experiencing an odd sensation. I think it might be patriotism.
Spitfire: Steady. Too much of that can damage your health.”
― Paul Cornell, Captain Britain and MI13, Vol. 1: Secret Invasion

“You hear stories like that all your life and think: cool, a ghost bus. But now we have to look at this stuff analytically... a ghost bus?! The “ghost” of a motor vehicle? A public conveyance, presumably, which didn't head towards the light, move on to join the choir invisible in... bus heaven, the great terminus in the sky, where all good buses go when they... I don't know, break down, but instead is doomed to … drive eternally the streets of Earth! How can there be a ghost bus?!”
― Paul Cornell, London Falling

“He'd actually done it! He leaned back into the microphone and whispered to the now silent cave: 'Come to the Cabaret!”
― Paul Cornell, Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka

“(The Skrull Beatles discuss their future.)

"So when this is all over, are we still gonna be the Skrull Beatles then?"
"I quite fancy being the Skrull Monkees for a bit."
"The dialogue's easier."
"As long as I get to be Peter Tork.”
― Paul Cornell, X-Men: Wisdom - Rudiments of Wisdom

“Wisdom: "Oh, fantastic. We've got an army made up of fairies and Beatles, and we're fighting H. G. Wells' martians and bloody Jack the Rippers. Who's next? Dick Van Dyke? Mr Bean? John Cleese and his dead parrot?”
― Paul Cornell, X-Men: Wisdom - Rudiments of Wisdom

“When Captain America died, Americans heard it in an American way: through the media. When Captain Britain died, the British felt it in their chests.”
― Paul Cornell, Captain Britain and MI13, Vol. 1: Secret Invasion

“The neighbors... hadn't, thankfully, done the usual by saying that Losley was a pleasant neighbor who'd kept herself to herself. (Always delivered in a tone of voice that suggested that, since keeping oneself to oneself was the single greatest thing one English person could do for another, the suspect ought to be excused whatever psychopathic shit they'd visited on other people.)”
― Paul Cornell, London Falling

“The telemarketers who called her up now seemed either desperate or resigned to the point of a mindless drone, until Judith, who had time on her hands and ice in her heart, engaged them in dark conversations that always got her removed from their lists.”
― Paul Cornell, Witches of Lychford

“Judith hated nostalgia. It was just the waiting room for death.”
― Paul Cornell, Witches of Lychford

“Stories are about endings,’ he’d said. ‘They don’t mean anything unless they come to an end.”
― Paul Cornell, Doctor Who: The Shadows of Avalon

“You with the tentacles, you're nicked!”
― Paul Cornell, London Falling

“Lizzie had come to understand that Sue’s mission in life was to say the things that she, or indeed anyone else, wouldn’t or couldn’t.”
― Paul Cornell, Witches of Lychford

“Only fools and criminals didn't know why they did things.”
― Paul Cornell, A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories

“Judith realised, with horror, that they were heading over to talk to her, and couldn't find, at a quick glance, anyone else she knew well enough to get into a conversation with. There were, just occasionally, drawbacks to being a nasty old bitch.”
― Paul Cornell, Witches of Lychford

“The idea of parts of the body public fighting each other was like the idea of a man's punching himself in the face. It was a physical blasphemy that suited this era as an index of how far it had all gone.”
― Paul Cornell, Rogues

“Monsters were one thing. She was used to monsters, she could deal with monsters. A noise in the darkness, with nothing attached to it, was another.”
― Paul Cornell, Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries

“In this place, upwards of 400,000
British men were going to be killed. They'd lost 20,000
just the other day. He sucked a grim smile. It was like
rich countries deliberately killing themselves, leaving
their battered remains ready for the revolution that would surely come, for who could return home without
wanting to face those who had wasted good men thus?”
― Paul Cornell, Doctor Who: Human Nature

“DI Cartwright: The cat is booby trapped? DI Quill: Welcome to my world.”
― Paul Cornell, London Falling

“As Lizzie had seen so many times with victims, the harder your life had been, the harder it was to give yourself room for ethical choices. So were born cycles of abuse.”
― Paul Cornell, Witches of Lychford

“John the Skrull: You say you've taken magic? Well all right, lads, all right. I could do the "Spartacus" thing, change into one of you, get lost among you. Live for five more minutes. But you know what? I'm not going to die looking like you! I don't want to be one of the fascists who made my people into morons! Who took something beautiful like Excalibur here and made it into just.. a.. bit of metal.”
― Paul Cornell, Captain Britain and MI13, Vol. 1: Secret Invasion

“People call love sickness heartache, but that's not where you feel rejection. Your heart only responds to excitement and fear - racing, pounding, skipping beats. You feel rejection in the pit of your stomach. It's like the moment you realise you've eaten bad food, and you know that all you've got to look forward to is a night of twisted torment and twisted sheets.”
― Paul Cornell, Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries

“Hell is where time has stopped, where there’s no more innovation. No horizon. No change. I sometimes think Hell would suit the British down to the ground, and that, given the chance, they’d vote for it.”
― Paul Cornell, London Falling

“Tara: So what does "Captain Britain's agent" actually do?
Wisdom: Between you and me, Tara, it's work, work, work. I'm in charge of Brian's hair.”
― Paul Cornell, Captain Britain And MI13, Vol. 3: Vampire State

“It’ll take weeks of grunt work and potentially lead nowhere,” said Quill. “Excellent: that sounds like police work to me.”
― Paul Cornell, London Falling

“what about the bullies?' 'They're the worst thing in the world. It's a big circle. They hurt people. The people they hurt feel powerless and go on to hurt other people when they're able to. And the original bullies were once hurt themselves. The wheel keeps on turning. Unless you step off.”
― Paul Cornell, Doctor Who: Human Nature

“Wisdom: Mate, we're up to our necks in Skrulls! But we remembered the treaty: mutual protection. Here we are! Now, I've lost a couple of people I care about in quick succession, and I am taking no more bollocks from you. I've got this voice in my head, it's half Gandalf and half Mr. Kipling. Who is that?!

Oberon: A VOICE?! YOU MUST NOT FOLLOW IT! IT'S THE MAD ONE, THE DEMON WHO KILLED HIS OWN CHILD AND LED EVERYONE TO DESTRUCTION! THE HIGHER EVOLUTIONARIES OF ALL THE WORLDS HAVE ONLY JUST SUCCEEDED IN CONFINING HIM TO THE DARK REALMS!

Wisdom: Oh. Right. Him. Well, I'm gonna stop following that voice then. Obviously.”
― Paul Cornell, Captain Britain and MI13, Vol. 1: Secret Invasion