London Rules Quotes
"Forewarned would not mean forearmed. All the villagers had were sticks."
"Catastrophe is its own herald, trumpeting its arrival to earlybirds and stragglers alike."
"You couldn't betray someone efficiently if you didn't love them first."
"Every spook’s dream was to throw off all pursuers, and know himself unwatched."
"You didn’t have to remind me, I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to arm staff just ’cause they’re bored."
"When the digital revolution’s won, we’ll all be speaking to them on a daily basis."
"There are worse things an alcoholic can have on her hands than time, but not many."
"Circles were traditionally vicious. Catherine suspected other shapes had teeth too, but better PR."
"I pointed out that Dander’s a coked-up idiot. A subtle difference, I know. But subtlety’s always been my strong point."
"Tom Hiddleston’s bum transcends gender preference."
"My body is a temple. So what does that make your lifestyle choices? The Taliban?"
"If I’m gonna be threatened I’m getting comfortable. You mind if I loosen my trousers?"
"Playing the national security card for the cops is one thing, Jackson, even though we both know your clearance is just marginally higher than Thomas the Tank Engine’s."
"Has he? Because I’m not sure I’ve ever put that habit down."
"The good news is, if they’re holding off on questioning Ho, we’ve got a window."
"My impression was, the PM speaks and his poodle barks."
"If you’re going to wrestle, I may have to film it for later study."
"I’m not interested in party politics, Mr Gimball."
"He’d join the ranks of those who’d confidently expected to swat this weak-kneed PM aside."
"Nobody could look at this photo, surely, and not see past the ill-applied blusher."
"I thought you had enough on Taverner to keep her onside."
"If what happened at Abbotsfield turns out to be our fault."
"We could produce a signed affidavit from whoever’s running Daesh today."
"I’m not suggesting the evening news, nor even tomorrow’s papers."
"I was hoping for commitment. Not just lack of means."
"The whole making-it-up-as-you-go-along schtick."
"The only damage being done was to his own future."
"He’d have said little. He’d have nodded, though, or something."
"Do you really think a club like Dancing Bear would pass up the chance to film its members having fun?"
"That’s what makes him dangerous. He’s got too much to prove."
"I’m not going to get through this without one."
"You’re on your own? No armed guards or, what do you call them? Dogs?"
"How can you stop it by yourselves? Those four … I mean, seriously?"
"I’m not going to let anyone thinking I don’t know how to treat a guest."
"I’m having a stomach cramp. I really need to eat."
"That would make as much difference to the ship of state as a koala taking over from a wombat."
"I’m not going to keep quiet when I have information which might lead to those responsible being apprehended."
"You could tell he was using it as a barrier."
"I’m going to kill her first. Before we go in."
"He sleeps with the silverfishes," said Lamb.
"This has gone on long enough. Shall I call the police? Is that what you want?"
"We move," he repeated. "I’ll take the woman, then we go in."
"Are you going to drive this slowly all the way?"
"If we’re not finished, there’ll be a sock on the doorknob."
"You are seriously starting to piss me off," she told Lamb.
"Fortunate for him," she said. "But not really what I was getting at."
"I think it’s about time you explained what happened, don’t you?"
"I read the Guardian," said River. "Well, sometimes. Well, the cartoons."
"It was an op," said Coe. "Authorised by our team leader."
"He looked like a player. Let’s face it, he was giving you trouble."
"But Shin and his crew had been different. They’d known who she was, what she did, and it was clear their information came from some higher agency."
"By the time she’d given him the code number of the file she wanted, he was convinced that poaching it was his own idea."
"If it had been easy persuading Ho to steal from credit card companies, it was a cakewalk having him plunder secrets."
"And even if it hadn’t, thought Coe, I am a bad man. Approach at your peril."
"It’s the old story. They only have to get lucky once."
"Sometimes, you had to make sure your own back was covered: what Diana Taverner would call London Rules."
"He’s a moving violation of the law of common sense: someone who’d spent his adolescence in criminal activity, and just to simplify things for everyone, had had himself branded to that effect."
"You dipped a toe in the criminal waters, you could always get dry again. But once you’d inked your face, nobody would ever truly believe it."
"But Jaffrey was his own man, and he’d never believed in tying his fortunes to a sinking ship."
"There was a day when all the butterflies arrived, Flyte remembered reading once: a town on the Black Sea, she thought it was. On one single day, marking summer’s arrival, the town became alive with butterflies."
"Every day is like this one: both familiar and unique. Today, like tomorrow, is always different, and always the same."
"That hate crime pollutes the soul, but only the souls of those who commit it."
"Conspiracy theories bloomed at the rate of one hundred and forty characters a second."
"Under the glitter and glad rags, the same heart beat."
"It’s what happens when there’s a tragedy. People want to show solidarity."
"It matters. When bad things happen to the innocent, the rest of us should stand together."
"You know why bad things happen to good people? It’s because of all the dickheads."
"Protecting the Service was her top priority, now and always."
"There’s a strong chance they were involved in Gimball’s death."
"Everything that happens – good and bad – dusk clocks, absorbs, then mostly forgets."