Slough House Quotes
"Yesterday she’d dozed off in the tub, its lapping a sense-reminder of the movement of the lake."
"Seriously, she thought: sooner this hunter on my tail than one of those nightmares fastened to my skin."
"Because you could swim a hundred laps of the lake, run more K than there were minutes in the hour, and none of it would count if you couldn’t shake a shadow on a city street."
"You couldn’t run away from your memories, but you could tire yourself to the point where the details blurred."
"You’ve got your sloping roof, adds character, but leaves ample space to maximize your lifestyle requirements."
"Traffic calmed by nearby lights; buses a regular fixture."
"In a perfect world, she’d have managed all three by the time she reached street level."
"The trick was showing you were juicier than it knew."
"So for now, he trod pantherlike among the pixels, melding with the matrix."
"Dance like no one’s watching, thought Shirley Dander. What cockwomble came up with that?"
"Slough House cast a portable shadow: you could hike halfway to Watford and still feel it on your back."
"For a city is an impermanent thing, its surface ever shifting, like the sea."
"London altered by the day, and if the city had never been as kind nor as welcoming to strangers as it liked to pretend, it had at least thrived on the variety that strangers introduced."
"The future may not be in my keeping, but trust me, the past is my domain."
"The history embedded in its bones counts for nothing. To those who buy and sell and own and build, the past is simply a shortcut to what’s yet to come."
"At any given moment, half its customers used to be spooks."
"But nobody ever approaches, and nobody ever looks in. Slough House might as well not be there, for all the attention paid to it."
"The past is simply a shortcut to what’s yet to come, and what’s yet to come offers magpie riches to those prepared to embrace the changes demanded."
"Addiction loves challenge because challenge provides an excuse to fail."
"But at the same time, she knew a danger had been avoided, and that her regret at not having confronted it head-on was her addiction speaking."
"Equality meant nothing if it didn’t involve earning your place at the table."
"I’m sure he’ll have rolled a head or two back home, won’t he? The Kremlin’s Gay Hussar."
"It’s interesting that you think you’re still holding the rope."
"The old way of doing things no longer applies. There are new realities of power evolving in front of our eyes."
"London altered by the day, and political fog, as history has illustrated, is best dispelled by the waving of flags and banners."
"You can’t have a heart condition until you do."
"Democracy is all very well, but nobody’s ever suggested it’s the be-all and end-all."
"The big picture isn’t the only thing worrying me."
"If bodies start turning up, I’ll know we’ve got a problem."
"We’re talking about national security, about protecting our virtual borders."
"This is not a partnership, Damien. This is a strictly one-way arrangement."
"Being forgotten is better than not knowing things."
"If you disappoint rich and powerful men, they let their displeasure be known."
"Everything we do costs money, because it all has to be discussed by committee."
"I’m not in this business to make nice, and I don’t like having to make do, either."
"Treat those you despise with humanity, especially if the reason you despise them is that they have none."
"You want the good news first or the bad news? And I should warn you up front, the bad news is, there’s no good news."
"I’m a reasonable man. Let’s put it to the vote. Hands up those who prefer Standish’s approach."
"‘So we’re what now,’ asked Louisa. ‘Tin ducks at a fairground stall?’"
"‘Hell no. Why would I do that?’ ‘To stop your team being treated with disrespect? … Sorry. Forget I spoke.’"
"If that’s what one does with porn. You’re asking the wrong person, really."
"God, you’re a drag to have around. Moan moan moan. It’s like being shackled to the ghost of Bob Marley."
"If we were all on the same side, we wouldn’t have to watch our own backs."
"‘That, sir, is arrant pedantry,’ Lamb said, in a fair approximation of Winston Churchill. ‘Up with which you can fuck right off.’"
"‘You might have backed them up a bit.’ ‘Oh, shut up. I told Taverner not to fuck with my joes. She probably won’t. But having them tailed by her L-plate muppets isn’t full-on fuckery. More like heavy petting.’"
"‘I plan to have a big lunch and a long nap,’ said Lamb."
"Then I’ll put the same effort into destroying you. But don’t let that upset you. It’s nothing personal."
"You could run next door, even. Tell the nice lady we’re taking you somewhere horrid."
"I don’t care what his name is. One of your security gorillas. I’ve told them before, and I’ll tell them again, I won’t have Dogs on my floor. Not even guide ones."
"There’s change coming, you got that part right. Massive change. And long overdue."
"It’s the will of the people being frustrated over and over."
"I may already have managed to curtail these covert activities. If not, I shall do so in short order."
"If we’ve been wiped, how come these guys know who to come looking for?"
"You know how your self-esteem couldn’t get lower? Well, congratulations. We have a new depth."
"‘What level surveillance are we under?’ ‘What level whattery are we what?’"
"All that has to come to an end. And that’s what we’re doing. Bringing it to an end."
"If that took me that long to join a pair of dots, I’d still be wondering why my Y-fronts shrink when I look at porn."
"‘It’s like being shackled to the ghost of Bob Marley.’ ‘I think you mean Jacob.’ ‘Depends,’ said Lamb. ‘Which was the one surrounded by wailers?’"
"You all know me – it’s Flinty. And I’m proud to be standing here wearing the same vest as the rest of you."
"Because that birthright, that word 'Great' that comes before Britain, we’ve seen it trampled in the dirt, haven’t we?"
"We’ve been lied to and talked down to for years."
"Because I’m one of you, and you all know that."
"Nights like this, and worse nights too – nights when it was cold and wet, and it was only our knowledge, only the knowledge that we were doing the right thing, kept us out here."
"And we’re going to keep doing that, brothers. Yes, and sisters too."
"Thank you. I can’t tell you what it means to me, to know I’ve got your support in the battles that lie ahead."
"These people are the enemy, and they came here to make it seem as if we were the violent ones, that our protest is violent."
"But for now, for right now, we need to make it clear that it’s us who's the victims here, us who's seeking justice."
"It’s been a good evening’s work, because we’ve shown we won’t be treated like dirt."
"‘Revenge? No, Diana, this is simply me being me. Nothing’s changed."