{"author":"Jonathan Stroud","author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud","total_quotes":25,"quotes":[{"text":"Death is fugitive; even when you're watching for it, the actual instant somehow slips between your fingers. You don't get that sudden drop of the head you see in movies. Instead you simply sit there, waiting for something to happen, and all at once you realize you've missed it.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["death","dying","loss"],"id":3931,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"I—though forced through lack of space to assume the form of a stoic guinea pig crouched between the girl's shoe and the glove compartment—was my usual dignified self.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["bartimaeus","humor","sarcasm"],"id":14828,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"In my youth, I was always one for the dramatic entrance. Now, in keeping with my character, I gravitate more toward the subtle and refined. Okay, with the occasional feathered serpent thrown in.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["bartimaeus","humor","sarcasm"],"id":23019,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"His rapier was at his belt, glittering as he swung. He reached down, ripped the sword clear. I jumped over a slashing frond of plasm, spun round with the water bottle in my hand. I hurled it across to Lockwood. George threw his rapier to me.Watch this now. Sword and bottle, sailing through the air, twin trajectories, arching beautifully through the mass of swirling tendrils towards Lockwood and me. Lockwood held out his hand. I held out mine.Remember I said there was that moment of sweet precision when we gelled perfectly as a team?Yeah, well. This wasn't it.The rapier shot past, missing me by miles. It skidded halfway across the floor. The bottle struck Lockwood plumb in the centre of his forehead, knocking him through the window.There was a moment's pause.'Is he dead?' the skulls voice said 'Yay! Oh. No, he's hanging onto the shutters. Shame. Still, this is defiantly the funniest thing I've ever seen. You three really are incompetence on a stick.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["funny","ghosts","humor","humour","lockwood"],"id":72565,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"Literature offers the thrill of minds of great clarity wrestling with the endless problems and delights of being human. To engage with them is to engage with oneself, and the lasting rewards are not confined to specific career paths.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["degree","english","literature","study","university"],"id":107513,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"The mole dug its way deep, deep down, under the foundations of the wall. No magical alarm sounded, though I did hit my head five times on a pebble.Once each on five different pebbles. Not the same pebble five times. Just want to make that clear. Sometimes you human beings are so dense.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["bartimaeus","humor","sarcasm"],"id":143156,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["ambition","amulet-of-samarkand","bartimaeus-trilogy","jonathan-stroud"],"id":159172,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"The bristling eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. Mesmerized, the boy watched them disappear under the hanging thatch of white hair. There, almost coyly, they remained just out of sight for a moment, before suddenly descending with a terrible finality and weight.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["eyebrows","humor","wit"],"id":176604,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"It was Nathaniel's boundless capacity for stating the obvious that made him so charmingly human.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["bartimaeus","human","humor","sarcasm"],"id":189984,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"},{"text":"Ah, two firm friends, reunited at last! There should be sweet violin music playing for us, but I'll settle for the screams of the dying.","author":"Jonathan Stroud","tags":["friendship"],"id":202536,"author_id":"Jonathan+Stroud"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":25,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}