Alan Bradley Quotes

• If you remember nothing else, remember this: Inspiration from outside one's self is like the heat in an oven. It makes passable Bath buns. But inspiration from within is like a volcano: It changes the face of the world.

  Alan Bradley

  Inspiration, Volcanoes, Self

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.552, Delacorte Press

  48 Copy quote

• My grandmother flew only once in her life, and that was the day she and her new husband ascended into the skies of Victorian London in the wicker basket of a hot-air balloon. They were soon to emigrate to Canada, and the aerial ride was meant to be a last view of their beloved England.

  Alan Bradley

  Husband, Grandmother, Air

  37 Copy quote

• One of the marks of a truly great mind, I had discovered, is the ability to feign stupidity on demand.

  Alan Bradley

  Stupidity, Mind, Demand

  Alan Bradley (2014). “The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.74, Delacorte Press

  19 Copy quote

• Anyone who knew the word slattern was worth cultivating as a friend.

  Alan Bradley

  Cultivating

  Alan Bradley (2009). “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.87, Delacorte Press

  8 Copy quote

• It is not unknown for fathers with a brace of daughters to reel off their names in order of birth when summoning the youngest, and I had long ago become accustomed to being called 'Ophelia Daphne Flavia, damn it.

  Alan Bradley

  Daughter, Father, Long Ago

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.193, Delacorte Press

  7 Copy quote

• I had long ago discovered that when a word or formula refused to come to mind the best thing for it was to think of something else: tigers for instance or oatmeal. Then when the fugitive word was least expecting it I would suddenly turn the full blaze of my attention back onto it catching the culprit in the beam of my mental torch before it could sneak off again into the darkness.

  Alan Bradley

  Thinking, Long Ago, Oatmeal

  Alan Bradley (2011). “A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.145, Delacorte Press

  5 Copy quote

• To be most effective, flattery is always best applied with a trowel.

  Alan Bradley

  Flattery

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.576, Delacorte Press

  5 Copy quote

• If poisons were ponies, I'd put my money on cyanide.

  Alan Bradley

  Poison, Ponies, Cyanide

  Alan Bradley (2013). “The Flavia de Luce Series 4-Book Bundle: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows”, p.123, Delacorte Press

  7 Copy quote

• What intrigued me more than anything else was finding out the way in which everything, all of creation - all of it! - was held together by invisible chemical bonds, and I found a strange, inexplicable comfort in knowing that somewhere, even though we couldn't see it in our own world, there was a real stability.

  Alan Bradley

  Real, Knowing, Together

  Alan Bradley (2009). “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.10, Delacorte Press

  4 Copy quote

• Whenever I'm with other people, part of me shrinks a little. Only when I am alone can I fully enjoy my own company.

  Alan Bradley

  People, Littles, Enjoy

  Alan Bradley (2011). “A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.85, Delacorte Press

  5 Copy quote

• I am often thought of as being remarkably bright, and yet my brains, more often than not, are busily devising new and interesting ways of bringing my enemies to sudden, gagging, writhing, agonizing death.

  Alan Bradley

  Interesting, Brain, Enemy

  Alan Bradley (2010). “The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.316, Dell

  4 Copy quote

• As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No ... eight days a week.

  Alan Bradley

  Book, Eight, Heaven

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.63, Delacorte Press

  6 Copy quote

• Whenever I'm out-of-doors and find myself wanting to have a first-rate think, I fling myself down on my back, throw my arms and legs out so that I look like an asterisk, and gaze at the sky.

  Alan Bradley

  Thinking, Doors, Sky

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.272, Delacorte Press

  5 Copy quote

• Chicken fizz! O Lord, protect all of us who toil in the vineyards of experimental chemistry!

  Alan Bradley

  Toil, Vineyards, Chemistry

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.240, Delacorte Press

  5 Copy quote

• The spectrum on the list is very broad. It includes leftists who think that whiny liberals should be stuffed in a sack and drowned.

  Alan Bradley

  Thinking, Politics, Lists

  7 Copy quote

• I'm at that age where I watch such things with two minds, one that cackles at these capers and another that never gets much beyond a rather jaded and self-conscious smile, like the Mona Lisa.

  Alan Bradley

  Self, Two, Laughing

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.488, Delacorte Press

  4 Copy quote

• Although it is pleasant to think about poison at any season, there is something special about Christmas, and I found myself grinning.

  Alan Bradley

  Christmas, Holiday, Thinking

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.1150, Delacorte Press

  4 Copy quote

• I was learning that among friends, a smile can be better than a belly laugh.

  Alan Bradley

  Laughing, Belly Laughs, Belly

  Alan Bradley (2011). “A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.184, Delacorte Press

  4 Copy quote

• Compared with my life Cinderella was a spoiled brat.

  Alan Bradley

  Spoiled, Spoiled Brat, Brat

  Alan Bradley (2011). “A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel”, p.83, Delacorte Press

  5 Copy quote

• Not very good with death? Father was a military man, and military men lived with death; lived for death; lived on death. To a professional soldier, oddly enough, death was life.

  Alan Bradley

  Father, Military, Men

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.53, Delacorte Press

  5 Copy quote

• The very best people are like that. They don't entangle you like flypaper.

  Alan Bradley

  People

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.820, Delacorte Press

  4 Copy quote

• I had thought for years, probably 30 or 40 years, that it would be a lot of fun to try my hand at a classic English mystery novel... I love that form very much because the reader is so familiar with all of the types of characters that are in there that they already identify with the book.

  Alan Bradley

  Fun, Book, Character

  "Book Talk: Alan Bradley on young sleuths and TV series". March 8, 2013, www.reuters.com. Interview with Noreen O'Donnell.

  4 Copy quote

• During a long career in TV broadcasting, I spent a lot of time contributing to other people's creations.

  Alan Bradley

  Careers, Long, People

  4 Copy quote

• Liberals have always been the most fervent Imperialists.

  Alan Bradley

  Politics, Fervent

  4 Copy quote

• I was an early reader, and my grandmother, who as a child had been forbidden to read by a father who believed books to be frivolous time-wasters, delighted in putting her favorite volumes into her grandchildren's hands.

  Alan Bradley

  Children, Father, Book

  4 Copy quote

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