“One magician demanded I show him an image of the love of his life. I rustled up a mirror.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Watch where you leave your victims! I stubbed my toe on that.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“That did it. I'd gone through a lot in the past few days. Everyone I met seemed to want a piece of me: djinn, magicians, humans...it made no difference.I'd been summoned, manhandled, shot at, captured, constricted, bossed about and generally taken for granted. And now, to cap it all, this bloke is joining in too, when all I'd been doing was quietly trying to kill him.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“I had a chance at him now. Things were a bit more even. He knew my name, I knew his. He had six years' experience, I had five thousand and ten. That was the kind of odds that you could do something with.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Jabor finally appeared at the top of the stairs, sparks of flame radiating from his body and igniting the fabric of the house around him. He caught sight of the boy, reached out his hand and stepped forward.
And banged his head nicely on the low-slung attic door.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Minor magicians take pains to fit this traditional wizardly bill. By contrast, the really powerful magicians take pleasure in looking like accountants.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“He was transfixed at the sight of the lords and ladies of his realm running about like demented chickens.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“If anyone else asked that question, O He Who Is Terrible and Great, I would have said they were an ignorant fool; in you it is a sign of the disarming simplicity which is the fount of all virtue.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcanoe. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.
Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him. And it did, too.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Bartimaeus: "A small piece of advice," I said "it isn't wise to be rude to someone bigger than you, especially when they've just trapped you under a boulder."
Imp: "You can stick your advice up...."
"This brief pause replaces a short, censored episode, characterized by bad language and some sadly necessary violence. When we pick up the story again, everything is as before, except that I am perspiring slightly and the contrite imp is the model of cooperation."
Bartimaeus: "I'll ask again: who is Rupert Deveraeux?"
Imp: "He's the British Prime Minister, oh Most Bounteous and Merciful one.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“The Amulet of Samarkand. It was Simon Lovelace's. Now it is yours. Soon it will be Simon Lovelace's again. Take it and enjoy the consequences.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“There was a loud cough from the man on the stand. I replaced My Magic Mirror carefully on his tray, gave him a cheesy smile, and went my way.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“A word of friendly advice could have saved him, but dear me, I was too busy watching him unravel to think of it until it was far too late.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“The bristling eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. Mesmerized, the boy watched them disappear under the hanging thatch of white hair. There, almost coyly, they remained just out of sight for a moment, before suddenly descending with a terrible finality and weight.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Haven't you done enough for a lifetime? Think about it—two power—crazed magicians killed, a hundred power—crazed magicians saved…”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N’gorso the Mighty, and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak, and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus!”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Woman, man, mole, maggot – they’re all the same, when all’s said and done, except for slight variations in cognitive ability.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Dazu bedarf es [...] vor allem des richtigen Namens. Ich meine, es ist ja nicht so, als bestellte man ein Taxi—bei einer Beschwörung kommt nicht einfach irgendwer!”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“When I set out from the boy's attic window, my head was so full of competing plans and complex stratagems that I didn't look where I was going and flew straight into a chimney.
Something symbolic in that. It's what fake freedom does for you.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“many weighty books on magic that looked as if they had been bound in human skin at the beginning of time but had probably been mass-produced last week by a factory in Catford.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“I'm sorry, Miraculous One, it's difficult to think of new titles for you when you ask short questions.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“The mole dug its way deep, deep down, under the foundations of the wall. No magical alarm sounded, though I did hit my head five times on a pebble.
Once each on five different pebbles. Not the same pebble five times. Just want to make that clear. Sometimes you human beings are so dense.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“The short, fat fingers moved like dancing sausages across the strings;”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price. Thinking”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“La libertad es una fantasía, siempre tiene un precio.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“My mind works on several levels at once.1”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
“They passed a succession of granite monuments to the conquering magicians of the late Victorian age and the fallen heroes of the Great War, then a few monolithic sculptures representing Ideal Virtues (Patriotism, Respect for Authority, the Dutiful Wife).”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Amulet of Samarkand
Jonathan Stroud
Born place: in Bedford, The United Kingdom
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“Expectations make people miserable, so whatever yours are, lower them. You'll definitely be happier.”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation
“You can't appreciate a great day unless you've experienced bad ones." - Rabbi Glassman”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin My Teenage Life
“I've been wishing that there was someone just like him, and now that he's found me, I feel like he has the power to pull me though this madness that has been consuming me”
― E.K. Blair, quote from Fading
“Ewan played it cool, looking back at Sebastian. "Are their names on the list?"
Sebastian didn't miss a beat. "No sir."
"But he isn't holding a list," the girl whined.
(...) "Is my name of the list?" I teased Sebastian.
"What list?" he said, deadpan. "Go on back?”
― Jaye Wells, quote from Red-Headed Stepchild
“Your dad was in a street gang?" My adopted dad was an accountant for a big Fortune 500 corporation. Him, me, and my adopted mom lived in the suburbs in an English Tudor house with a gigantic basement where he fiddled with model trains. The other dads were lawyers and research chemists, but they all ran model trains. Every weekend they could, they'd load into a family van and cruise into the city for research. Snapping pictures of gang members. Gang graffiti. Sex workers walking their tracks. Litter and pollution and homeless heroin addicts. All this, they'd study and bicker about, trying to outdo each other with the most realistic, the grittiest scenes of urban decay they could create in HO train scale in a subdivision basement”
― Chuck Palahniuk, quote from Snuff
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