Quotes from The Empty Grave

“This is what the Problem means,” he went on. “This is the effect it has. Lives lost, loved ones taken before their time. And then we hide our dead behind iron walls and leave them to the thorns and ivy. We lose them twice over, Lucy. Death’s not the worst of it. We turn our faces away.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“The skull’s…spirit? He…he looks different.”
The youth scowled. “Yeah? You look just the same. I was banking on frostbite taking a few of your fingers, or even your nose. Here’s hoping something else has dropped off that I don’t know about. If not, I’ll be sorely disappointed.”
Lockwood stared. “Does he always talk like this?”
“No. Usually he’s worse. See what I have to put up with?”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Looks?” the skull said. “Who cares about that? It’s superficial. Outward appearance doesn’t interest me at all. Why do you think I hang around with you?” It chuckled. “Insult aside, that’s just one way in which I’m superior to every one of you, except for Cubbins.”

I blinked. “What? Why? What’s George got to do with anything?”

“What a person looks like doesn’t bother him much, or hadn’t you noticed?”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Who says I’m dying? Did you see the amount of sheer effort it took me to escape the land of the dead? I’m not going back in now!”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Lockwood didn’t speak until everything was quiet again. “I know you’re worrying about me, Luce,” he said. “But you really mustn’t. These things happen when you’re an agent. You’ve been snared by ghosts in the past, haven’t you? There was the one that made the bloody footprints, and the thing in the tunnels below the Aickmere Brothers store. But it’s fine, because I helped you then, and you’ve helped me now. We’re there to help each other. If we do that, we’ll get through.” Which was a lovely thing to say, and it made me feel a little warmer. I just had to hope it was true.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Let's have the baddish one first,' George said. 'I prefer my misery to come at me in stages, so I can acclimatize on the way.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Here we go," the Skull sighed. "Cue crisis!”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Do you trust me?' the skull said.
...
'Yes,' I said. 'Sort of.'
'Then break the bloody glass.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“It was higher and shriller than Holly’s, so we knew that it was Kipps.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Mr Lockwood, you've impressed a lot of people over the years. Personally, I expected you to be ghost-touched long ago, but your agency has flourished. Impress me again now... Let them forget about you... Even now, it's probably not too late. - Inspector Barnes”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Ooh, I smell something burning... Wait, wait - it's your pants ! Your pants are on fire, you massive liar ! You so weren't on a case !”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“Ghost Lore among the Tribes of New Guinea and West Sumatra,”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

“The door closed; almost imperceptably, the lift began to rise.
'Going up,' the skull said. 'Next floor: cutlery, condiments and underpants.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.