Top 90 Genevieve Cogman Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “What she needed was a miracle. What she got was a dragon.”

— Genevieve Cogman

2. “So much for a nice quiet evening with a good book.”

— Genevieve Cogman

3. “We are what we make ourselves.”

— Genevieve Cogman

4. “Right now, she wanted nothing more than to shut the rest of the world out, and have nothing to worry about, except the next page of whatever she was reading.”

— Genevieve Cogman

5. “There were always problems in dealing with the Fae. Despite their human appearance, they were soul-destroying entities from beyond space and time who introduced chaos into alternate worlds.”

— Genevieve Cogman

6. “Remind me why I took this job,’ Kai muttered. ‘People pointed guns at you. Right?’ ‘Yeah. Something like that.’ ‘And you like books.’ She glanced sidelong at him. He flashed a quick, genuine smile at her. ‘Yeah. That would be it.”

— Genevieve Cogman

7. “We are the Library,” Coppelia pointed out. “What we don’t know, we research.”

— Genevieve Cogman

8. “Mother, please, hear me out. If there’s something I’ve learned over the last few years, it’s that everything people do is important. I happen to have chosen this particular thing to do with my life, and I was lucky enough to have the choice.”

— Genevieve Cogman

9. “Information was the best weapon she could have.”

— Genevieve Cogman

10. “A high level of chaos would mean that they could expect to meet the Fae, creatures of chaos and magic, who were able to take form and cause disorder on such a corrupted world. And that was never good news.”

— Genevieve Cogman

11. “And Irene hadn’t broken the letter of any ordinances – she hoped. She’d just jumped up and down on the spirit of them, then taken them down a dark alley and made some pointed suggestions at knife-point.”

— Genevieve Cogman

12. “All right,” Irene said in the sudden pause. “Everyone stay back, or the cat’s going to regret it.”

— Genevieve Cogman

13. “Alberich was a figure out of nightmare. He was the one Librarian who’d betrayed the Library and got away with it and was still somewhere out there.”

— Genevieve Cogman

14. “Irene sighed. “So we have an incredibly glamorous female cat burglar who slinks around in a black leather cat-suit, who kills vampires in her spare time?”

— Genevieve Cogman

15. “I will have some tea fetched. That is your society does drink tea? Always, Irene said.”

— Genevieve Cogman

16. “Panic is the last thing we can afford,” Coppelia said. “Panic will have everyone rushing off in different directions to try to ‘save the Library.’ Panic is the antithesis to good organization. Panic is messy. I am against panic on a point of principle.”

— Genevieve Cogman

17. “Vogliamo i libri. Amiamo i libri. Viviamo con i libri.”

— Genevieve Cogman

18. “Ah.” Vale stepped away from the side of the zeppelin and offered her his hand. “Then I believe we can work together, Miss Winters.”

— Genevieve Cogman

19. “Irene felt a desperate surge of nostalgia for her Library. Her life was more than just airship chases, cyborg alligator attacks, and hanging out with this alternate universe’s nearest analogue to Sherlock Holmes. She was a Librarian, and the deepest, most fundamental part of her life involved a love of books. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to shut the rest of the world out and have nothing to worry about except the next page of whatever she was reading.”

— Genevieve Cogman

20. “Very strongly tied to Europe, which is why CENSOR has an English name and acronym. It did attempt to leave the European Union last year, but apparently that was prompted by demonic interference. A lot of politicians were subsequently tried for treason and beheaded at the Tower of London.”

— Genevieve Cogman

21. “I have spent most of my life preferring books to people,’ Irene said sharply. ‘Just because I like a few specific people doesn’t change anything.”

— Genevieve Cogman

22. “You think very highly of yourself,” Kai answered, equally quietly, but far more deadly, “if you believe that it doesn’t matter.”

— Genevieve Cogman

23. “Blind faith is just another word for slavery.”

— Genevieve Cogman

24. “This sense of possibility might not last, of course Nothing ever did. But she wasn’t going to spoil it by looking too far ahead. They were safe in the Library, and the Library would endure.”

— Genevieve Cogman

25. “Clean indoor studies in the dark arts, military history, and alchemy didn’t preclude messy outdoor classes in strategic combat, duelling, open-field assassination, and rugby.”

— Genevieve Cogman

26. “She remembered the conversation in the Library, as forgetting was the last thing a fully-trained Librarian should do. Memories were as important as books, and almost as important as proper indexing.”

— Genevieve Cogman

27. “The atmosphere of the place soothed her automatically; the rich lantern lights, the sheer scent of paper and leather, and the fact that everywhere she looked, there were books, books, beautiful books.”

— Genevieve Cogman

28. “Stories matter – telling them, sharing them, preserving them, changing them, learning from them, and escaping with and through them. We learn about ourselves and the world that we live in through fiction just as much as through facts. Empathy, perception and understanding are never wasted. All libraries are a gateway into other worlds, including the past – and the future.”

— Genevieve Cogman

29. “We also wish to make it absolutely clear that Librarians should not attempt to use the Library to transport dinosaur eggs. And if they do disregard this rule, under no circumstances should they draw official in-world attention while doing so. In fact, we wish to remind all Librarians that they are here to collect books, not dinosaurs. Those Librarians who have problems distinguishing between the two should take a refresher course in Library basics.”

— Genevieve Cogman

30. “She occasionally daydreamed about being the sort of character in a story who could faint and leave everyone else to sort things out. But that wasn’t going to happen.”

— Genevieve Cogman

31. “Si trattava di trovare delle opere uniche di narrativa e salvarle, portandole in un luogo fuori dal tempo e dallo spazio.”

— Genevieve Cogman

32. “The problem with paranoia was that if you let it rule all your decisions, then you would miss some perfectly good opportunities.”

— Genevieve Cogman

33. “All libraries are a gateway into other worlds, including the past – and the future.”

— Genevieve Cogman

34. “We don’t want to be stuck on the train with nothing to read.”

— Genevieve Cogman

35. “And at that moment the alligators burst into the room.”

— Genevieve Cogman

36. “Oh well, hindsight always had all the best ideas.”

— Genevieve Cogman

37. “And she didn’t want great secrets of necromancy, or any other sort of magic. She just wanted – had always wanted – a good book to read. Being chased by hellhounds and blowing things up were comparatively unimportant parts of the job.”

— Genevieve Cogman

38. “I think he and the Princess are engaged in an unofficial game of Who Can Show They’re More Important by Arriving Last, not that either of them would admit it.”

— Genevieve Cogman

39. “Maybe if Irene uses the Language – how did you get here? We’re down in the far end of chaos.”

— Genevieve Cogman

40. “Passageways between the Wings are always a little strange. I went through one once that you had to crawl through.” “How did they move books through that?” “They didn’t, usually. They routed them round some other way. But it was useful if you were in a hurry.” He jerked a thumb at the window. “Have you ever seen anyone out there?”

— Genevieve Cogman

41. “Now, tell me, Ray, why is it that a thing’s always in the last place you look?” “The malice of inanimate objects,” Irene answered.”

— Genevieve Cogman

42. “Do you doubt the Ten, my lord?”

— Genevieve Cogman

43. “Or possibly possessiveness was a characteristic of draconic affection. They were supposed to be hoarders, after all. Not so different from Librarians.”

— Genevieve Cogman

44. “And there was another elephant in the room. There were so many elephants in the room that it was getting positively crowded.”

— Genevieve Cogman

45. “She was in the Library. Not just any library, but the Library.”

— Genevieve Cogman

46. “What is written can be erased, alas.”

— Genevieve Cogman

47. “Kai’s fingers bit into her shoulder hard enough to make her refocus. ‘If you pass out on me now, I’m going to kill you,’ he said conversationally.”

— Genevieve Cogman

48. “Now she just had to explain everything – well, most things – to the men, and then be off.”

— Genevieve Cogman

49. “In fact, we wish to remind all Librarians that they are here to collect books, not dinosaurs. Those Librarians who have problems distinguishing between the two should take a refresher course in Library basics.”

— Genevieve Cogman

50. “And then they were inside, and out of the wind, and surrounded by comforting walls and walls of books. The rich, delightful smell of old paper, leather and ink permeated the place, washing away the pettier odours of blood and oil and smog.”

— Genevieve Cogman