Alan Bradley Quotes

• The press was ruthless, but then so was the church.

  Alan Bradley

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• Why then had I heard nothing? Everyone knows that the killing of a human being requires the exertion of a certain amount of mechanical energy. I forget the exact formula, although I know there is one.

  Alan Bradley

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•  She must have seen my startled reaction. “Love’s not some big river that flows on and on forever, and if you believe it is, you’re a bloody fool. It can be dammed up until nothing’s left but a trickle…” “Or stopped completely, I added.

  Alan Bradley

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• “You must have loved her awfully,” I said, realizing even as I spoke that I made it sound as if Fenella were already dead. “Yes, sometimes very much,” Porcelain said reflectively, “-and sometimes not at all.”

  Alan Bradley

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• And it was signed simply George.

  Alan Bradley

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• I had concocted the gunpowder myself from niter, sulfur, charcoal, and a happy heart. When working with explosives, I’ve found that attitude is everything.

  Alan Bradley

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• I was learning that the best conversations consisted of keeping quiet and listening, and speaking, when one spoke at all, in words of a single syllable.

  Alan Bradley

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• Something was missing. I was sure of it. Something was missing, but I couldn’t for the life of me think what it was.

  Alan Bradley

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• I believed that if I could discover what it was, there might be a chance of putting things right, of somehow making it up to him.

  Alan Bradley

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•  Surely, I thought, I must be the saddest child in the world; that there must be something innately horrid about me to cause my father to cast me off so heartlessly.

  Alan Bradley

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• Like most, I was a solitary boy at first, keeping to my books and weeping in the hedgerows whenever I could get away on my own.

  Alan Bradley

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• The panel on the right portrayed Jesus emerging from his tomb, as Mary Magdalene, in a red dress (also iron, or perhaps grated particles of gold), holds out to him a purple garment (manganese dioxide) and a loaf of yellow bread (silver chloride).

  Alan Bradley

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• Father had grumbled, of course, but had made another appointment to have me netted and dragged back up to London, to that third-floor ironmonger’s shop in Farringdon Street, where I would be strapped to a board like Boris Karloff as various bits of ironmongery were shoved into my mouth, screwed in, and bolted to my gums.

  Alan Bradley

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• But what he said was true enough: I had recently destroyed a perfectly good set of wire braces by straightening them to pick a lock.

  Alan Bradley

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• Now, glancing over…as she knelt with her eyes closed, her fingertips touching and pointed to Heaven, and her lips shaping soft words of devotion, I had to pinch myself to keep in mind that I was sitting next to the Devil’s Hairball.

  Alan Bradley

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• Well I’d seen Dr. Johnson’s face in the book’s frontispiece and I couldn’t imagine anyone male or female wanting to stare into it for any length of time —the man was an absolute toad.

  Alan Bradley

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• I remembered that Johnson had declared portrait painting to be an improper employment for a woman. “Public practice of any art and staring in men’s faces is very indelicate in a female,” he had said.

  Alan Bradley

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• We Three Kings of Leicester Square, Selling ladies’ underwear, So fantastic, no elastic, Only tuppence a pair.

  Alan Bradley

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• I drew in a deep breath, sucking the sour tange into my lungs and savoring the chemical smell of decay. But this was no time for pleasant reflections.

  Alan Bradley

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• My head was spinning. I could think of nothing better to calm it down than the Oxford English Dictionary.

  Alan Bradley

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Alan Bradley (186)

Birth:	1938
Nationality:	Canadian
Profession:	Writer

About

Alan Bradley is a Canadian mystery writer known for his Flavia de Luce series, which began with the acclaimed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Bradley learned to read at an early age, partly because he was a sickly child who spent a lot of time in bed. Bradley had been interested in writing his entire life. However, he began to take it more seriously in his early 30s after moving to Saskatoon. There, he joined several writing groups and began spending time with local writers.

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Today's Anniversary - 15th January

Births

• 1914 - Etty Hillesum
• 1947 - Pete Waterman
• 1841 - Sarah Doudney
• 1913 - Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr.
• 1970 - Will Oldham

Deaths

• 1996 - Les Baxter
• 1919 - Rosa Luxemburg
• 1987 - Ray Bolger
• 1947 - Victor Robinson
• 1948 - Josephus Daniels