Top 90 Genevieve Cogman Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 2

51. “Kai might be very non-judgemental when it came to personal gender roles, but he was extremely superior when explaining how non-judgemental he was. “I.”

— Genevieve Cogman

52. “We don’t know how many worlds there are, so we don’t know how many we lose to chaos.”

— Genevieve Cogman

53. “The Library runs on conspiracy theory. Admit nothing, deny everything, then find out what’s going on and publish a paper on the subject. It’s not as if they can stop you doing that.”

— Genevieve Cogman

54. “There were three basic reasons why Librarians were sent out to alternates to find specific books: because the book was important to a senior Librarian, because the book would have an effect on the Language, or because the book was specific and unique to that alternate world. In this last case, the Library’s ownership of it would reinforce the Library’s links to the world from which the book originated.”

— Genevieve Cogman

55. “Stuffed creatures, come to life and attack werewolves.”

— Genevieve Cogman

56. “The only problem is that it’s difficult to imagine something entirely new. We use the words and definitions of the past to shape our ideas. Something that is genuinely the next evolutionary step is unlikely to resemble anything we can imagine. Even the best books on the subject are limited.” She’d.”

— Genevieve Cogman

57. “She just wanted – had always wanted – a good book to read.”

— Genevieve Cogman

58. “I plan for the worst,’ Silver said. ‘That way, at least I’m dressed for the occasion.”

— Genevieve Cogman

59. “Management positions always come with ulcers attached.”

— Genevieve Cogman

60. “Irene spread out her skirts and turned to watch the room, a smile pinned to her face. ‘No, nothing going on here, absolutely normal. My friend here likes to stare into locks and wiggle bits of metal round in them; he does it every day and twice on Sundays...”

— Genevieve Cogman

61. “Apparently Lord Wyndham did regularly donate books to various museums around London. They were usually ones which he had collected earlier, but which were no longer of interest to him or his associates. Irene twitched at the very notion. Give books away? How very frivolous, she finally said.”

— Genevieve Cogman

62. “I may take a while to learn from my mistakes, but I get there eventually.”

— Genevieve Cogman

63. “That instead of running directly back to your assigned world and your work – and your prince – you’re staying in the Library for long enough to have coffee. And not just a cup, but a whole pot. Has it been a bad few days?”

— Genevieve Cogman

64. “Then the howling started. It was either hellhounds or teenagers, and she suspected the former.”

— Genevieve Cogman

65. “Irene made a private mental resolution that if she ever became a queen, her throne would incorporate a cushion. Also a convenient bookcase.”

— Genevieve Cogman

66. “Irene didn’t dignify his question with an answer. Besides, he’d learn better. A Librarian’s mission to seek out books for the Library developed, after a few years, into an urge to find out everything that was going on around one. It wasn’t even a personal curiosity. It was a simple, impersonal, uncontrollable need to know. One came to terms with it. She lifted off the Canopic jar’s stylized jackal-head lid. ‘There’s something in here,’ she reported.”

— Genevieve Cogman

67. “Life was much easier before I had to worry about everyone else worrying,’ Irene muttered. ‘It’s called growing up, dear. It comes with staying alive.”

— Genevieve Cogman

68. “Redefining oneself is something we all have to do... The only person who could ever set bounds on you should be yourself.”

— Genevieve Cogman

69. “Paranoia was one of the few habits that was worth keeping.”

— Genevieve Cogman

70. “All her life she had been taught that the Language allowed its users to shape reality.”

— Genevieve Cogman

71. “Memories were as important as books and almost as important as proper indexing.”

— Genevieve Cogman

72. “It goes a bit like this,” Irene said, as they walked towards the stairs. “The first step is, I’ll kill myself before I let him do that to me again. The second step is to say, Wait, it’d be much more practical to kill him rather than kill myself. And there you have it. A sensible plan based on logical choices.”

— Genevieve Cogman

73. “All right, Irene thought, I have officially met someone who makes even more reckless plans than I do. ‘This could indeed be the beginning of a beautiful friendship,’ she agreed, and she couldn’t help smiling.”

— Genevieve Cogman

74. “It is my theory that the greater truths underlying life and death can be best be understood as a parable – that is, as a fiction.”

— Genevieve Cogman

75. “Living outside the Library was never safe. Flying sleighs could come out of nowhere and hit you, however careful you were.”

— Genevieve Cogman

76. “What were the requirements for using the Language? That the Librarian using it should be able to name and describe what they wanted to happen, and that the Librarian should have the strength to compel reality to change itself. And that the universe could hear her words.”

— Genevieve Cogman

77. “Involvements with glamorous female cat burglars never end up well.”

— Genevieve Cogman

78. “This is a place built to store books, by people who wanted to preserve books, and used by people who want to read those books. I am not alone.”

— Genevieve Cogman

79. “You may take it as you wish, Irene said. But I am not giving you my mission, and I am not giving you my student, and if I were the sort of person who kept pet rats, I would not give you my rat. Clear?”

— Genevieve Cogman

80. “And if she’d been able to choose her options a few hours ago, being trapped in a dead vampire’s private study with an angry Fae would not have been one of them.”

— Genevieve Cogman

81. “Strong-minded women with a cause accepted even fewer excuses than the average gangster, when it came to getting what they wanted, and what they wanted right now was Irene making a speech.”

— Genevieve Cogman

82. “Let’s not borrow trouble till it’s actually here.”

— Genevieve Cogman

83. “Many were reacting to the crisis by getting drunk, and Irene couldn’t blame them. It was a perfectly reasonable response to the situation, and it was supporting local businesses. A win–win situation.”

— Genevieve Cogman

84. “She did find that the books displayed prominently in every chamber had been dusted, but the spines were pristine and uncreased. They had the sad, untouched air of literature paraded for display purposes but never actually used. It was profoundly depressing.”

— Genevieve Cogman

85. “No, refusal is an option. It’s just that refusal comes with consequences. If you make a choice, then you’re responsible for the consequences of that choice.”

— Genevieve Cogman

86. “And on the few occasions when it simply hadn’t been invented and you had indeed introduced the alternate to a whole new concept, you could end up with problems like cold fusion.”

— Genevieve Cogman

87. “Irene had no objection to stealing a good strategy, any more than to stealing a good book.”

— Genevieve Cogman

88. “But the good thing about subtle hints was that one could ignore them as long as the actual work got done.”

— Genevieve Cogman

89. “So far, I have been assaulted, attacked by cyborg alligators, almost drowned in the Thames, had most of the skin stripped off my hand, been poisoned with curare, revived with strychnine, and chased by both werewolves and giant robots. Are you accusing me of not taking this seriously, sir?”

— Genevieve Cogman

90. “She decided her persona needed one more little push, just to confirm herself in Qing Song’s eyes as a powerful, arrogant, but conveniently ignorant idiot. “I trust that your investigation won’t get in the way of mine. Which I shall start to commence now. Good day.” A powerful, arrogant idiot with bad grammar, she amended her own thought.”

— Genevieve Cogman

91. “They had the sad, untouched air of literature paraded for display purposes but never actually used. It was profoundly depressing.”

— Genevieve Cogman

92. “Irene realized she was on the point of shouting. Worse, of being ungrammatical. She took a deep breath.”

— Genevieve Cogman

93. “Sympathy would imply I might even try to help them. Pity is much safer. It can be delivered from on high without getting involved. I pity them.”

— Genevieve Cogman

94. “Dead was still dead, whether the killer was exotic, professional, or amateur. Getting killed was incredibly easy. Anyone could do it. Staying safe and alive was much harder.”

— Genevieve Cogman

95. “And here in the Library, even if our outer layer is order, we have an inner heart of chaos. We read too much for it to be anything else.”

— Genevieve Cogman

96. “Stories are like that. They’ll wait for you until you can come back to them.”

— Genevieve Cogman

97. “Are either of you two young people skilled with alligators? Do they teach alligator training in Canada?”

— Genevieve Cogman

98. “She didn’t always have to be the strong one. We can be strong for each other.”

— Genevieve Cogman

99. “She’d always wondered, or even daydreamed, what it was like to actually work with great detectives, rather than just read about them. It was more annoying than she expected.”

— Genevieve Cogman