The Quantum Thief Quotes
"Prisons are always the same, don’t you think? No one wants to be here. No one really lives here. We’re just passing through."
"If we had toilets, the doors would open inwards. Nothing ever changes."
"You never get used to the feeling of hot metal, entering your skull and exiting through the back of your head."
"The Prison is all about education. And game theory: the mathematics of rational decision-making."
"A few million rounds more and I’ll be a Boy Scout."
"You capture territory by playing against your neighbours."
"Trust me, you are out. It required considerable expense."
"I am Jean le Flambeur, I steal what I choose, when I choose."
"Being born is like a key turning in a lock."
"Everything hurts. The scale of things is wrong. I cover my eyes with vast hands."
"Dying is like walking across a desert, thinking about stealing."
"It surprises me that the chocolate factory smells of leather."
"I thought you were interested in detecting. But then, first impressions can be deceiving."
"The City always comes back, no matter what. It is lined with cherry trees, with streets and alleyways leading off to the Maze, where the secrets are."
"The old you got caught. Trust me, it’s not about the questions."
"Art should not be flat, or dead, like this. It should be sung." - Mieli
"All publicity is good publicity." - Unidentified woman
"Do you know who I am?" - Jean le Flambeur
"I trust you. You have served me well." - The pellegrini
"The Great Common Task requires faith. You have been found wanting." - Jean le Flambeur
"It’s about respecting other people’s property. I make it my property so that I can properly respect it." - Jean le Flambeur
"Why do you care? How would you like to solve a case that would give you real fame?" - Unidentified woman
"It’s an honour to meet you. She never mentioned you before. Or her father. Is he around?" - Isidore
"Fire from the sky cuts the balcony from the hip of the city like a surgeon’s knife."
"The world is a chaos of bodies, explosions and the smell of burning flesh."
"Darling doves, says Perhonen. I’m glad you are okay, but don’t expect to hear from me for a few hours."
"‘Just art,’ Mieli says, and for the life of me I can’t figure out if she is making a joke."
"Being about to become someone else is a thrilling feeling, a tickle of possibility in my gut."
"Whisky has always tasted like introspection to me."
"The thought of someone coming to his personal space, unannounced, without access to his gevulot makes his skin crawl."
"In Martian gravity, I land on my back, ears ringing, colours flashing in front of my eyes."
"A part of me was hoping you would spot certain things on your own as you have done."
"When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
"I think I’m going to call you Sherlock."
"Experience that is all I wanted. Until the note came along."
"To catch a thief. Something pure. Something simple. Something clean."
"You are not going to regret your decision."
"I would be much obliged if you could carry out your investigations without…academic pursuits."
"You get to try again. But remember that we treated her very badly last time."
"Time is what we make of it; relative, absolute, finite, infinite."
"Shouldn’t every moment be a big moment?"
"It’s hard not to be, when the fireworks are about to start."
"I could be Thor the God of Thunder and the Old Age would still wrestle me to the ground."
"You are going to scream now, just like the chocolatier in my brother’s memories."
"You are not going to go anywhere, are you?"
"I’m supposed to go on a raid in twenty minutes."
"I can't believe you talked me into this."
"You should have seen the charm I turned on her last night, with no results."
"I thought you were Quiet, or eaten by the damn Sobornost!"
"I don't want to think of you like that. You deserve better."
"I never wanted you to die. It was always about something else."
"You drive the elders up the wall. It's fun to watch."
"I think that people who keep the truth from other people are no better than the cryptarchs."
"It’s about justice. We can beat them. We finally have a weapon to beat them."
"You have never had to fight. You have always been protected."
"Wake up. Yes, you won, you beat me; you worked it out. But the rest of us, we have bigger things to do. Not just another case, but justice, for everyone."
"It’s not just the Voice they have been manipulating. It’s everything. It’s history."
"I have seen the Kingdom. It took me a long time to realize it, but it’s inside a box in the zoku colony. It’s a simulation."
"Sometimes, it only takes a few moments to make you a different person. Sometimes it takes centuries."