85
" You've been a really good friend to me, Richard. And I've sort of got to quite like having you around. Please don't go.' He squeezed her hand in his gently. 'Well,' he said, 'I've sort of got to quite like having you around, too. But I don't belong in this world. In my London...well, the most dangerous thing you ever have to watch out for is a taxi in a bit of a hurry. I like you too. I like you an awful lot. But I have to go home.' She looked up at him with her odd-coloured eyes, green and blue and flame. 'Then we won't ever see each other again,' she said. 'I suppose we won't' 'Thanks for everything you did,' she said, seriously. Then she threw her arms around him, and she squeezed him tightly enough that the bruises on his ribs hurt, and he hugged her back, just as tightly, making all his bruises complain violently, and he simply didn't care. "
― Neil Gaiman , Neverwhere (London Below, #1)
86
" Richard wrote a diary entry in his head.
Dear Diary, he began. On Friday I had a job, a fiancée, a home, and a life that made sense. (Well, as much as any life makes sense). Then I found an injured girl bleeding on the pavement, and I tried to be a Good Samaritan. Now I've got no fiancée, no home, no job, and I'm walking around a couple of hundred feet under the streets of London with the projected life expectancy of a suicidal fruitfly. "
― Neil Gaiman , Neverwhere (London Below, #1)
92
" Then turn around thrice, widdershins"?'
'Widdershins is anticlockwise, Richard.'
He turned, three times, feeling stupid. 'Look, why do I have to do all this, just to see your friend. I mean, all this nonsense...'
'It's not nonsense. Really. Just - humour me on this, OK?' And she had smiled at him.
He stopped turning. Then he walked down the alley to the end. Nothing. No one. Just a metal dustbin, and beside it something that might have been a pile of rags. 'Hello?' called Richard. 'Is anyone here? I'm Door's friend. Hello?'
No. There was no one there. Richard was rather relieved. Now he could go home and explain to the girl that nothing had happened. "
― Neil Gaiman , Neverwhere (London Below, #1)
94
" Jessica pak viděla v Richardovi obrovské možnosti, jež z něho, pokud ho osedlá správná žena, udělají dokonalý společenský doplněk.
Jen kdyby se trochu víc snažil, stěžovala si pro sebe, a dávala mu knihy s tituly jako Oblečením k úspěchu a Sto a jeden návyk úspěšného muže a knihy o tom, jak vést podnik jako válečné tažení, a Richard vždycky poděkoval a vždycky si sliboval, že si je přečte. (...)
"Proč s ní chodíš?" ptal se ho Garry v účtárně o osmnáct měsíců později. "Jde z ní strach. "
― Neil Gaiman , Neverwhere (London Below, #1)