Peter Grant Quotes

“I gave the prescribed Metropolitan Police "first greeting".
"Oi!" I said "What do you think you're doing?”
― Ben Aaronovitch

“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?”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

“Fuck me, I thought. I can do magic.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

“The Metropolitan Police Service is still, despite what people think, a working-class organisation and as such rejects totally the notion of an officer class. That is why every newly minted constable, regardless of their educational background, has to spend a two-year probationary period as an ordinary plod on the streets. This is because nothing builds character like being abused, spat at and vomited by members of the public.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

“So that's when I came up with the most ridiculous plan since I'd decided to take a witness statement from a ghost. It was a plan so stupid that even Baldrick would have rejected it out of hand.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers Under Ground

“From then on, it was even twistier B-roads through a country so photgenically rural that I half expected to meet Bilbo Baggins around the next corner - providing he'd taken to driving a Nissan Micra.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Foxglove Summer

“Bollocks, I thought, or testiculi or possibly testiculos if we were using the accusative.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Or as my dad always says: it only becomes a social problem when the working man joins in.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Lies Sleeping

“He'd obviously wanted to tell someone about it for a long time and I was a convenient ear. I get that a lot. Stephanopoulos calls it my secret weapon. "It's that vacant expression," she said, "people just want to fill the empty void".”
― Ben Aaronovitch, False Value

“Abigail stared suspiciously at Lesley. "Why are you wearing a mask?" she asked.
"Because my face fell off," said Lesley.
Abigail considered this for a moment and then nodded. "Okay," she said.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers Under Ground

“I was pleased to see that even back in the glory days of the Folly people left their mugs of tea on their magical textbooks.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Fuck me,' I said out loud, 'I'm in fairyland.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Foxglove Summer

“.I caught a very frail Peter grant shortly before his death. He was in reflective mood, and not at all the monster people portrayed him during his seventies heyday. I always regretted deadlines in interviews. I hated the pressure of time. People need space to breathe and relax. That is when the truth is spoken, and you find that it's not the cardboard cut-out character that people expect”
― Bruce Dickinson

“She was spontaneously created by the midichlorians,' I said. Both women gave me blank looks. 'Never mind.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London

“Then Beverley Brook stepped onto the footplate and pointed a shotgun straight at the Queen’s head – I recognised the Purdey from my trunk. It was nice to see it getting an airing.
Beverley herself was wearing an oversized leather jerkin and jeans. Her dreads had been tied into a plait down her back and a pair of antique leather and brass goggles were pushed up onto her brow.
‘Put your hands on your head,’ she said, ‘and step away from the boyfriend.’
The Queen hissed and gripped the rope harder.”
― Aaronovitch Ben