Quote

On the plus side, there were no rioters in sight but on the minus side this was probably because everywhere I looked was on fire.

Ben Aaronovitch

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ben Aaronovitch
Age: 60
Author
Businessperson
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Inner and Outer London
Side
Probably
Sides
Minus
Fire
Riot
Plus
Everywhere
Sight
Looked

More quotes by Ben Aaronovitch

Image
My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you're born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train's pulled into Piccadilly Circus they've become a Londoner.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
This is your brain on magic.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
Landscaping is the great cardinal sin of modern architecture. It's not your garden, it's not a park - it's a formless patch of grass, shrubbery and the occasional tree that exists purely to stop the original developer's plans from looking like a howling concrete wilderness.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
Coffee arrived and the espresso was excellent, like an aromatic electric fence.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
Carved above the lintel were the words SCIENTIA POTESTAS EST. Science points east, I wondered? Science is portentous, yes? Science protests too much. Scientific potatoes rule. Had I stumbled on the lair of dangerous plant geneticists?
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
What do you think you're doing?
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
I gave the prescribed Metropolitan Police first greeting. Oi! I said What do you think you're doing?
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
You know, your species [humans] has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched only by its ingenuity in trying to destroy itself.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
If you find yourself talking to the police, my advice is to stay calm but look guilty it's your safest bet.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
Conflict resolution,' said Nightingale. 'Is this what they teach at Hendon these days?' 'Yes, sir,' I said. 'But don't worry, they also teach us how to beat people with phone books and the ten best ways to plant evidence.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
When you're a boy your life can be measured out as a series of uncomfortable conversations reluctantly initiated by adults in an effort to tell you things that you either already know or really don't want to know.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
For a terrifying moment I thought he was going to hug me, but fortunately we both remembered we were English just in time. Still, it was a close call.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
He was calling it an atonic seizure because, even if he didn't know why it had happened, it was important to give it a cool name.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
...good-Samaritanism in London is considered an extreme sport - like base-jumping or crocodile-wrestling.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
This I know for a fact: the reason African women have children is so that there's someone else to do the housework.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
The motto of West African cooking is that if the food doesn't set fire to the tablecloth the cook is being stingy with the pepper.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
Questions would be asked. Answers would be ignored.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
My dad once told me that the secret to a happy life was never to start something with a girl unless you were willing to follow wherever it led. It's the best piece of advice he has ever given me, and probably the reason I was born.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
The first rule about a black woman’s hair is you don’t talk about a black woman’s hair. And the second rule is you don’t ever touch a black woman’s hair without getting written permission first.
Ben Aaronovitch
Image
Are they really gods? I never worry about theological questions, said Nightingale. They exist, they have power and they can breach the Queen's peace - that makes them a police matter.
Ben Aaronovitch