Conflict resolution,’ said Nightingale. ‘Is this what they teach at Hendon these days?’ ‘Yes, sir,’ I said. ‘But don’t worry, they also teach us how to beat people with phone books and the ten best ways to plant evidence.
BEN AARONOVITCHIf you just warn people, they often simply ignore you. But if you ask them a question, then they have to think about it.
More Ben Aaronovitch Quotes
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He was calling it an atonic seizure because, even if he didn’t know why it had happened, it was important to give it a cool name.
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On the plus side, there were no rioters in sight but on the minus side this was probably because everywhere I looked was on fire.
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The motto of West African cooking is that if the food doesn’t set fire to the tablecloth the cook is being stingy with the pepper.
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…good-Samaritanism in London is considered an extreme sport – like base-jumping or crocodile-wrestling.
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The truth is that at the end of the day, unless you’ve generated some sort of lead, you go home and get on with the important things in life – like drinking and sleeping, and if you’re lucky, a relationship with the gender and sexual orientation of your choice.
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You know, your species [humans] has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched only by its ingenuity in trying to destroy itself.
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The clever people at CERN are smashing particles together in the hope that Doctor Who will turn up and tell them to stop
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The worst part is staying in the room after you’ve broken the news, so that you’re forced to be there when someone’s life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn’t bother them – such people are not to be trusted.
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Somebody doesn’t know they’re not in Kansas anymore,’ said Stephanopoulos.
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Coffee arrived and the espresso was excellent, like an aromatic electric fence.
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The media are doing this, not because they have a sinister motive, but because they love to feel that they are influencing events. That’s why they hate politicians so much, because politicians have direct power and they do not.
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Being a seasoned Londoner, Martin gave the body the “London once-over” – a quick glance to determine whether this was a drunk, a crazy or a human being in distress.
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This I know for a fact: the reason African women have children is so that there’s someone else to do the housework.
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If you find yourself talking to the police, my advice is to stay calm but look guilty; it’s your safest bet.
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What frustrated me was the thought that with three thousand years of history someone in China, some monk in a monastery halfway up a mountain, must have developed a magic kata.
BEN AARONOVITCH