James P. Blaylock > Quotes

“Strange things are said to have happened in this world — some are said to be happening still — but half of them, if I'm any judge, are lies.”
― James P. Blaylock, Paper Dragons

“Considering the number of ghastly love poems that had been written and which seemed fairly clearly a waste of everyone's time, Jonathan couldn't help but be surprised that coffee hadn't been thus immortalized.”
― James P. Blaylock, The Elfin Ship

“There was a time when that kind of thing looked like the kingdom of heaven, but somewhere along the line it had lost its glow. Maybe that was just the cost of growing up. And maybe the cost of growing up was too high.”
― James P. Blaylock, Night Relics

“He’d given up squid merchanting when he’d found that the creatures inhabited his dreams, all leggy and cold.”
― James P. Blaylock, Homunculus

“If he set out right now to make a list of the things he had taken for granted in his life, he’d go broke buying paper.”
― James P. Blaylock, Night Relics

“Anger is seldom a useful emotion, and the more self-righteous the anger, the less useful it is.”
― James P. Blaylock, Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy

“Bottle cork, bottle cork There’s naught within but lees. The glowing eyes of Jack O’Lantern Dance on evening’s breeze; Goblin fires light the wood And flicker through the trees. The clouds, they say, are whipping cream, The oceans seas of teas, The rain a fall of diamonds, The moon a ball of cheese.”
― James P. Blaylock, The Elfin Ship

“There was something wonderful, though, in doing useless work. You could turn it into a sort of art.”
― James P. Blaylock, Land of Dreams

“His books - his good books - lined two walls. None of the volumes were worth much. He was a book owner rather than a collector. He was a hoarder. That was the truth of the matter. His books added something to his existence - a sort of atmosphere. No, it was more than that. They were a barrier of sorts. They were like a concrete foundation on a house; they kept the structure of his life up out of the dirt. They kept the termites out of the sill and kept the whole place from shaking to bits when the earth quaked. Looking at them was satisfactory, even when he was in a foul mood.”
― James P. Blaylock, The Last Coin

“And yet I’m sure, Cheeser, that in this world of ours, science doesn’t hold the only key; it only unlocks one of the doors – and perhaps the side door at that.”
― James P. Blaylock, The Elfin Ship

“She got that response often enough – the unearned appreciation of men who admired her appearance. She didn’t find it flattering, but it was sometimes useful.”
― James P. Blaylock, Beneath London

“So the leaves were falling slowly in the cool breezes, and of those left on the trees few were green. Most were brown and red and gold, and when they piled up on the ground and were rained on, they smelled awfully good, although it was a sort of lonesome, musty smell.”
― James P. Blaylock, The Elfin Ship

“The April weather was so altogether pleasant that it came near to making up for the fearful lunch that would at any moment arrive to stare at St. Ives from a china plate.”
― James P. Blaylock, The Steampunk Adventures of Langdon St. Ives

“We're awash in magical totems. Surrounded by little portholes looking out into infinity, at glimpses of immortality, if you bring it down to earth. The most trivial flotsam and jetsam scattered on the beach and cluttering shelves of junk stores means something, if you look at it from the right angle, through the right sort of spectacles.”
― James P. Blaylock, The Last Coin

“One nice thing about being a bachelor, he thought as he turned toward the front counter, was that you could do as you pleased, although it wasn’t always clear to him why he was pleased to do as he did, especially when he had no one to please but himself. During the time he had been with Elaine, he hadn’t nearly as often done as he pleased, but he had often been surprised to find that he was pleased anyway.“ Knights of the Cornerstone”
― James Blaylock