01UndatedKeep your head down, Edward. Those that see too much quickly find themselves seeing nothing at all.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
02UndatedFunding for the Special Operations Network comes directly from the government. Most work is centralized, but all of the SpecOps divisions have local representatives to keep a watchful eye on any provincial problems. They are administered by local commanders, who liaise with the national offices for information exchange, guidance and policy decisions. Like any other big government department, it looks good on paper but is an utter shambles. Petty infighting and political agendas, arrogance and sheer bloody-mindedness almost guarantees that the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
03UndatedTry to be pleasant to one another, get plenty of fresh air, read a good book now and then, depose your government when it suspends the free press, try to use the mechanism of the state to adjudicate fairly and employ diplomatic means wherever possible to avoid armed conflict.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
04UndatedBelieve me, you're going to have to do much worse than this--in the pursuit of freedom, the innocents will suffer--and at your hands.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
06UndatedNo one would argue that we owe a debt of gratitude to the Goliath Corporation. They helped us to rebuild after the Second War and it should not be forgotten. Of late, however, it seems as though the Goliath Corporation is falling far short of its promises of fairness and altruism. We are finding ourselves now in the unfortunate position of continuing to pay back a debt that has long since been paid--with interest...Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
07UndatedNever underestimate the capacity for romance, no matter what the circumstances.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
08UndatedYou're just a huge romantic at heart, aren't you?""If there's cash involved, I'm anything you want me to be.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
09UndatedInviting a goblin to cross your threshold was a recipe for disaster, and certainly worse than doing the same with a vampire. With the latter all you got was a nasty bite, but the company, the extraordinarily good sex and the funny stories more than made up for it—apparently.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
10UndatedAll of everything came into existence simply because it wanted to be. The big bang wasn't so much a big bang as a hasty dash toward an opportunity to trade nothingness for somethingness. The main contributory factor to the entire universe was a momentary effect in need of a cause.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
11UndatedThe Special Operations Network was instigated to handle policing duties considered either too unusual or too specialized to be tackled by the regular force. There were thirty departments in all, starting at the more mundane Neighborly Disputes (SO-30) and going onto Literary Detectives (SO-27) and Art Crime (SO-24). Anything below SO-20 was restricted information, although it was common knowledge that the ChronoGuard was SO-12 and Antiterrorism SO-9. It is rumored that SO-1 was the department that polices the SpecOps themselves. Quite what the others do is anyone's guess. What is known is that the individual operatives themselves are mostly ex-military or ex-police and slightly unbalanced. 'If you want to be a SpecOp,' the saying goes, 'act kinda weird...Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
12UndatedYou have many fine qualities that I admire. But you are out of time. You should have been born a century ago, when values such as yours meant something.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
13UndatedI am boring, but I'm ok with it. I'm the anchor, the shoulder...I'm an average man...with a truly extraordinary wifeJasper Fforde / quote ↗
15UndatedOutside Styx's apartment was not the first time Rochester and I had met, or would it be the last. We first encountered each other at Haworth House in Yorkshire when my mind was young and the barrier between reality and make-believe had not yet hardened into the shell that cocoons us in adult life. The barrier was soft, pliable and, for a moment, thanks to the kindness of a stranger and the power of a good storytelling voice, I made the short journey--and returned.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
16UndatedComedy was one of those genres that while appearing quite jolly was actually highly dangerous.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
17UndatedSaid by Colin the dragon:"It's somewhat bizarre to learn that many of you (humans)think that other humans are somehow different enough to be hated and killed, when in reality you're all all tiresomely similiar in outlook, needs and motivation, and differ only by peculiar habits, generally shaped by geographical circumstance.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
18UndatedYou want me to spy on a National Colour operative?''Wow,' she said, 'you got it. I thought I was going to have to explain that one for a lot longer.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
19UndatedI got mixed up with some oddness in my youth, and the long and short of it is that I can't shuffle off this mortal coil until I have read the ten most boring classics.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
20UndatedAnything devised by man has bureaucracy, corrpution and error hardwired at inception.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
21UndatedThere is no point in expending good money on the pursuit of an engine that can power aircraft without propellers. What is wrong with airships anyway? They have borne mankind aloft for over a hundred relatively accident-free years and I see no reason to impugn their popularity...Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
22UndatedPretty?' I said, swivelling in the driver's seat to face him, 'you want to ask me out because I'm pretty?' 'Is there a problem with asking you out because you're pretty?' 'I think you blew it,' said Tiger with a grin. 'You should be asking her out because she's smart, witty, mature beyond her years and every moment in her company makes you want to be a better person - pretty of face should be at the bottom of the list.' 'Oh, blast,' said Perkins despondently. 'It should, shouldn't it?Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
23UndatedThose that see too much quickly find themselves seeing nothing at all.Jasper Fforde / quote ↗
