“You wouldn't think you could kill an ocean, would you? But we'll do it one day. That's how negligent we are.”

“Witches never existed, except in people’s minds. All there was in the olden days was women and some men who believed in herbal cures and in folklore and in the wish to fly. Witches? We’re all witches in one way or another. Witches was the invention of mankind, son. We’re all witches beneath the skin.”

“[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland.”

“War created bizarre allies, while peace itself could be divisive.”

“Rebus drank his coffee and felt his head spin. He was feeling like the detective in a cheap thriller, and wished that he could turn to the last page and stop all his confusion, all the death and the madness and the spinning in his ears.”

“Was it all inevitable, John?" Reeve was pushing his fingers across the floor of the cell, seated on his haunches. I was lying on the mattress.Yes," I said. "I think it was. Certainly, it's written that way. The end of the book is there before the beginning's hardly started.”

“Chialer, c'était bon quand on perdait au foot, qu'on vous racontait des histoires d'animaux héroïques, ou en entendant "Flower of Scotland" après l'heure de fermeture.”