Top 160 Jonathan Stroud Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Yes, all the inhabitants of the store had left. But that didn’t mean we were alone.”

— Jonathan Stroud

102. “There was a profound silence, abruptly broken by an enormously loud rumble from George’s stomach. Plaster didn’t actually fall from the ceiling, but it was close.”

— Jonathan Stroud

103. “George will be at home, I should think,” Lockwood said easily. “Probably making one of his chicken-and-sweetcorn pies. He’s really very domesticated.” Sir Rupert smiled approvingly. “Sounds scrumptious. I must pop round to Portland Row sometime.” “Please do,” Lockwood said. “I’d love that.” “Good night, then.” “Good night.” We pattered swiftly down the steps and set off up the Strand. “One day,” Lockwood said, “I’m clearly going to have to kill him. Not now, but sometime soon.”

— Jonathan Stroud

104. “Believe me, I know all about bottle acoustics. I spent much of the sixth century in an old sesame oil jar, corked with wax, bobbing about in the Red Sea. No one heard my hollers. In the end an old fisherman set me free, by which time I was desperate enough to grant him several wishes. I erupted in the form of a smoking giant, did a few lightning bolts, and bent to ask him his desire. Poor old boy had dropped dead of a heart attack. There should be a moral there, but for the life of me I can’t see one.”

— Jonathan Stroud

105. “More ghosts have been created in bedrooms than anywhere else.”

— Jonathan Stroud

106. “Lucy, I’m a malevolent skull, without an ounce of compassion. You’ve got to be worried if I’m feeling sorry for you.”

— Jonathan Stroud

107. “What could it be? Not a date, surely – the boy’s got eyes.”

— Jonathan Stroud

108. “Time snapped back into one piece. I was wholly in the present, alert and questioning.”

— Jonathan Stroud

109. “That old cow gave me a right old whack. See this horrible red blob?”

— Jonathan Stroud

110. “This guy’s a drag.” I spoke under my breath. “He sure is.” “Know what I suggest?” “Yep. And the answer’s no. I’m not going to kill him.” “Oh, you’re no fun.”

— Jonathan Stroud

111. “In my eyes, refusing cake is an immoral act.”

— Jonathan Stroud

112. “This was how you did it. This was how your spirit stayed strong. This was how you looked death in the eye and defied it.”

— Jonathan Stroud

113. “They were hot, itchy, and hard to see out of, plus the wool covered our mouths and made it difficult to speak. Aside from that, it was a joy to wear them.”

— Jonathan Stroud

114. “It was a time of beginnings and a time of endings.”

— Jonathan Stroud

115. “Oh, the boots were on the other eight feet now.”

— Jonathan Stroud

116. “The Hermit was known to be pretty sniffy about disciples who returned in failure. There was a wall of the institute layered with their skins- an ingenious display that encouraged vigor in his students, as well as nicely keeping out the drafts.”

— Jonathan Stroud

117. “Lockwood gave a sudden exclamation; when I looked at him, his eyes were shining. ‘On second thoughts, we can scrap my last suggestion,’ he said. ‘Stuff the mingling. Who wants to do that? Boring. George – this library. Where is it?”

— Jonathan Stroud

118. “Those statues were exquisitely carved, without exception; that was what the Egyptians were really good at, along with organized religion and civil engineering.”

— Jonathan Stroud

119. “But Holly the gun-toting, wild-haired madwoman of the night before was in there somewhere, I knew. It made me look upon her with fond affection.”

— Jonathan Stroud

120. “This is the way it was with Lockwood, his shifts were sometimes so sudden that they took your breath away. But his energy and enthusiasm were always impossible to resist.”

— Jonathan Stroud

121. “Sorry for what? Your appearance? Your character? Wait, I bet it’s your smell. Twenty-four hours of terror, violence, chases, and being for all intents and purposes dead plays havoc with the armpits. Don’t let Lockwood step downwind of you tonight, that’s all I’m saying.”

— Jonathan Stroud

122. “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

123. “Well, with luck we’ll miss the beginning of the performance.”

— Jonathan Stroud

124. “Oh, we’ll suffer in silence. You’ve given us plenty of practice at that.”

— Jonathan Stroud

125. “Probing psychological analysis is one thing: namely impartial observation, liberally spiced with sarcasm and personal abuse – let’s face it, I’m good at all that – constructive suggestions, quite another.”

— Jonathan Stroud

126. “Okay, well, if you do want to come with me, Luce, I’ll be in the hall.” He went to the door, paused, and grinned back at me. “And don’t forget to sign the statement!” With that, he was pattering down the stairs.”

— Jonathan Stroud

127. “Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him.”

— Jonathan Stroud

128. “As an author, you need to keep talking to your audience to remind yourself what they like and what they don’t like. You spend most of your life locked in a room, and you need to be social occasionally.”

— Jonathan Stroud

129. “Long ago I dreamed of being a hero in your company” Halli said Huskily “I’m sorry to say your reality disappoints me.”

— Jonathan Stroud

130. “Like the rest of the team, neither of us had wanted to do anything much, other than eat and sleep and enjoy the pure mechanics of being alive. But now he was here.”

— Jonathan Stroud

131. “A warm feeling filled me. It was made of tea and biscuits and sudden gratitude.”

— Jonathan Stroud

132. “It was higher and shriller than Holly’s, so we knew that it was Kipps.”

— Jonathan Stroud

133. “Doubts, like ghosts, gain strength in darkness; even with the dawn I wasn’t sure I’d done the right thing.”

— Jonathan Stroud

134. “He gripped me tighter around the waist and pulled me to him. “No,” he said into my ear. “No, Lucy. That’s not the way it’s going to be.”

— Jonathan Stroud

135. “To my astonishment I saw him standing at a table with Kitty Jones. It was the Kitty Jones bit that was astonishing. Not the table. Though it was very nicely polished.”

— Jonathan Stroud

136. “We trespassed in the city of the dead, and all our skills and talents counted for nothing.”

— Jonathan Stroud

137. “Making tea is a ritual that stops the world from falling in on you. Everything pauses while you do familiar things with taps and kettles; it allows you to catch your breath and become calm.”

— Jonathan Stroud

138. “Because you’re unique. You shine like a beacon, attracting the attention of all dark things.” It chuckled. “Why do you think I’m chatting with you?”

— Jonathan Stroud

139. “Can I offer you some tea while you ransack our place?′ Lockwood asked politely.”

— Jonathan Stroud

140. “This city,′ said George, ’is going to hell in a handcart.”

— Jonathan Stroud

141. “I’d never punched an old lady before; I didn’t have any problem doing so now.”

— Jonathan Stroud

142. “It’s everywhere. It’s right on top of us. It coils around us like a snake. We’re all inside it. It’s already swallowed us whole.”

— Jonathan Stroud

143. “We all laughed, but it wasn’t really a room for laughter. Nor for tears, oddly, or for anger, or for any emotion other than a sort of solemnity. It was the place of absence; we were in the presence of something that had left. It was like coming to a valley where someone had once shouted, loud and joyously, and the echo of that shout had resonated between the hills and lasted a long time. But now it had vanished, and you stood on the same spot, and it was not the same.”

— Jonathan Stroud

144. “Burglary’s more fun than socializing, I always say.”

— Jonathan Stroud

145. “I don’t know how old the man was... but he was definitely closer to coffin than crib.”

— Jonathan Stroud

146. “Wrong. I’m not alone. I have my friends.”

— Jonathan Stroud

147. “I was making for 35 Portland Row.”

— Jonathan Stroud

148. “Mr Lockwood,′ he said slowly. ‘It’s like the end of the world.”

— Jonathan Stroud

149. “What was it about Albert? He seemed to live almost entirely in the present, able to cut himself off from the unpleasantness of the past and the perils of even the most imminent future. Sure, it kept him in more or less constant danger of death, but it was not the least of his talents. Scarlett, on whom certain aspects of the past weighed heavily, found that she envied it greatly.”

— Jonathan Stroud

150. “Despite myself, of course, I also couldn’t help being flattered by Lockwood’s words of praise.”

— Jonathan Stroud