Kate Griffin Quotes

• “We be light, we be life, we be fire! We sing electric flame, we rumble underground wind, we dance heaven! Come be we and be free!”

  Kate Griffin

  130 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

• “When last I checked, you were a sorcerer, not a Jedi."
  "You've seen Star Wars?"
  "Seen it and denounced it."
  "You've denounced Star Wars?"
  She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Hollywood should not glorify witches."
  "I think you've missed the point..."
  "I also denounce Harry Potter."
  "Really?"
  "Yes."
  "Because..."
  "...because literature, especially children's literature, should not glorify witches."
  "Oda, what do you do for fun?"
  She thought about it, then said, without a jot of humor, "I denounce things.”

  Kate Griffin

  63 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “He glanced up as I entered, and for a moment, looked almost surprised.
  "Mr. Swift!"
  "Ta-da!" I exclaimed weakly.
  "You're still..."
  "Still not dead. That's me. It's my big party trick, still not being dead, gets them every time.”

  Kate Griffin

  61 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “It's the new me," I explained, waving my hands jazz-style in greeting. "Matthew Swift, Midnight fucking Mayor - I've got multicoloured highlighters and everything.”

  Kate Griffin

  23 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “Never argue with the surreal; there's no winning against irrationality.”

  Kate Griffin

  22 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

• “Offer me?" A shrill note of indignation entered her voice. "Young man, there are three things that make Britain great. The first is our inability at playing sports."
  How does that make Britain great?"
  "Despite the certainty of loss, we try anyway with the absolute conviction that this year will be the one, regardless of all evidence to the contrary!"
  I raised my eyebrows, but that simply meant I could see my blood more clearly, so looked away and said nothing.
  "The second," she went on, "is the BBC. It may be erratic, tabloid, under-funded and unreliable, but without the World Service, obscure Dickens adaptions, the Today Program and Doctor Who, I honestly believe that the cultural and communal capacity of this country would have declined to the level of the apeman, largely owing to the advent of the mobile phone!"
  "Oh," I said, feeling that something was expected. "Oh" was enough.
  "And lastly, we have the NHS!"
  "This is an NHS service?" I asked incredulously.
  "I didn't say that, I merely pointed out that the NHS makes Britain great. Now lie still.”

  Kate Griffin

  21 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “Curiosity may have killed the cat, but paranoia was what tied it up in a sack and buried it in wet concrete.”

  Kate Griffin

  20 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “Men don't ask other men if they're getting home OK, they just assume that beneath the frail, weak exterior lurks a muscle-building kung fu master fearless of ever being mugged.”

  Kate Griffin

  20 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “Paranoia seems more reasonable when you've got twelve stitches in your side.”

  Kate Griffin

  18 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “Never underestimate the ridiculous things that have been done in the name of religious-semantic obscurity.”

  Kate Griffin

  17 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement

• “My name is Matthew Swift. I’m a sorcerer, the only one in the city who survived Robert Bakker’s purge. I was killed by my teacher’s shadow and my body dissolved into telephone static and all they had left to bury was a bit of blood. Then we came back, and I am we and we are me, and we are the blue electric angels, creatures of the phones and the wires, the gods made from the surplus life you miserable excuse for mortals pour into all things electric. I am the Midnight Mayor, the protector of the city, the guardian of the night, the keeper of the gates, the watcher on the walls. We turned back the death of cities, we were there when Lady Neon died, we drove the creature called Blackout into the shadows at the end of the alleys, we are light, we are life, we are fire and, would you believe it, the word that best describes our condition right now is cranky.
  
  Would you like to see what happens when you make us mad?”

  Kate Griffin

  15 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “The dream state just before wakening when it seems perfectly logical for the goldfish not to like peeling its own potatoes on the bus.”

  Kate Griffin

  15 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement

• “You know, yeah, it seems to me like there are two kinds of chosen one. There's the kinda who gets chosen for a thing without any say, like someone who gets picked- kings and queens and shit. Then there's the other kind of chosen one; the guy who stands up when everyone else is afraid, when no one else can decide. Guy who chooses to fight, or do the thing that no one else will, 'cause it has to be done, yeah? I mean, most times, that guy's a total shit. And sometimes he's the hero. Seems to me that you're a bit of both.”

  Kate Griffin

  13 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “Are you aware, Mr Mayor, then when casually scrying the streets of London, you stand out like a giraffe on roller skates, yes?”

  Kate Griffin

  12 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement

• “Between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, I broke into a total of six offices, one penthouse suite and a small bank, and cursed them all. I cursed the stones they were built on, the bricks in their walls, the paint on their ceilings, the carpets on their floors. I cursed the nylon chairs to give their owners little electric shocks, I cursed the markers to squeak on the whiteboard, the hinges to rust, the glass to run, the windows to stick, the fans to whir, the chairs to break, the computers to crash, the papers to crease, the pens to smear; I cursed the pipes to leak, the coolers to drip, the pictures to sag, the phones to crackle and the wires to spark. And we enjoyed it.”

  Kate Griffin

  12 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “We were beginning to understand why, in pre-anaesthetic days, the Bible had stipulated that suicide was a sin. Anything other than the prospect of eternal damnation, and the human race would probably have done away with itself at the first sign of the dentist.”

  Kate Griffin

  12 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “Whatever happened next, good or bad, it would be wonderful finding out.”

  Kate Griffin

  11 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “We...find it hard to conceive of...of a consciousness whose power, intellect and capacity can be both infinite and capable of caring," we replied. "We find it hard to accept that there is an unknown thing set above us, to judge us, that we cannot judge in return. Such a concept is, it would appear to us, injustice incarnate, not redemption at all.”

  Kate Griffin

  11 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement

• “It was an excellent coat. It was long, grey, suspiciously blotched, smelt faintly of dust and old curries, went all the way down to my knees and overhung my wrists even when I stretched out my arms. It had big, smelly pockets, crunchy with crumbs, it boasted the remnants of a waterproof sheen, was missing a few buttons, and had once been beige. It was the coat that detectives down the ages had worn while trailing a beautiful, dangerous, presumably blond suspect in the rain, the coat that no one noticed, shapeless, bland and grey - it suited my purpose perfectly.”

  Kate Griffin

  10 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “Someone says 'inauguration' in my line of work, and you can just bet there'll be freaky shit. It's like quests. You get told to 'go forth and seek the travelcard of destiny' and you know, I mean, you seriously know that it won't have just been left down the back of the sofa.”

  Kate Griffin

  10 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “I was the apprentice of Robert James Bakker. I'm sure you've heard of him. I am a sorcerer. I was there when Bakker died. We... made it happen. I too have met death, and did not have to peel the bones away from my chest to survive the encounter. I am also, and incidentally, the Midnight Mayor, the blue electric angels, the fire in the wire, the song in the telephones, and we are having a bad week. Be smart; fear us.”

  Kate Griffin

  10 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “When humans work, they frequently become unaware of their own body, their own senses, are surprised to find that their wrists ache or their backs are sore or their friend has left the building. It's as close to an out-of-body experience as can be achieved short of fifty volts, a circle of warding, a pigeon's claw cut from an albino female of purest white feathers, or a lot of mushrooms.”

  Kate Griffin

  9 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “If I had to be succinct, I guess I would say that urban magic works on the premise that magic is created by life. And life, these days, is about the underground, the buses, the street lamps, the smell of Chinese take away and the footsteps you half-thought you could hear behind you in the empty car park, but which are gone when you look again.”

  Kate Griffin

  9 Copy to clipboard Copy quote
• “I got dressed. You can't be Midnight Mayor in your underpants.”

  Kate Griffin

  9 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement

Advertisement
• “We ran, as graceful as a burst beetroot.”

  Kate Griffin

  8 Copy to clipboard Copy quote

Advertisement