Цитаты из книги Whispers Under Ground

Недостаточный объем выборки – вот причина, по которой магия никак не может сблизиться с наукой

"Мы, полицейские, предпочитаем не использовать нормальные слова, если можем заменить их никому непонятным сленгом".

Мы служим в полиции, и умение в нужный момент включать паранойю входит в список важных профессиональных навыков.

Меня пронесло мимо, но тут нога зацепилась за что-то твердое, и я упал вперед. Так распалась первая в мире англо-американская сборная по санным заездам в канализации.

The British have always been madly over-ambitious and from one angle it can seem like bravery, but from another it looks suspiciously like a lack of foresight.

Low sample size -- one of the reasons why magic and science are hard to reconcile.

“Nightingale turned up,” she said. “He was hoping to shout at you a bit to show his affection in a gruff manly and safely non-gay way but you were asleep so he just sort of milled around for a while and then off he went.”

It was a good plan, and like all plans since the dawn of time, this would fail to survive contact with real life.

Not being invited in is one of the boxes on the “suspicious behavior” bingo form that every copper carries around in their head along with “stupidly overpowerful dog” and being too quick to supply an alibi. Fill all the boxes and you too could win an all-­expenses-paid visit to your local police station.

This is why magic is worse even than quantum physics. Because, while both spit in the eye of common sense, I've never yet had a Higgs boson turn up and try to have a conversation with me.

I didn’t want to die, but the truth is that the choice isn’t in your hands. Sometimes the only thing you can do is wait, endure and hope.

My dad says that the Russians have a saying: a man can get used to hanging if he hangs long enough. Unfortunately, what is true of hanging is not true of the smell of the London sewers, which are truly indescribable. Let’s just say that it’s the sort of smell that follows you home, hangs around outside your door and tries to hack your voicemail.