Along with the redesign of the website last week came my choice of favourite quote.

A quote has to stand alone, be memorable, make you feel something and at the same time take you back to what the book stands for.

It can be funny, powerful or true in a way that kicks you in the gut. They’re best if they make you want to know more. About the world it comes from. The narrator who spoke it. The writer who thought it.

Rebel here, yeah? Is one of my favourite quotes because in one of Light’s typical phrases it sums up the Rebel Vampires series. It allows me to imagine him in leather jacket, with London accent and British sense of ballsy humour.  Because it’s not thrown out in the midst of one of his MMA fights or end of the world battles:

‘So, I guess you did read my journal then? I noticed it’d been straightened on the crochet table. It’s not like I leave anything straight, is it? Because rebel here, yeah?

I knew you’d read my pissed off ramblings, when you tossed the black jeans and t-shirt at me, before slamming down a cup of blood and banging out. Not a single glance at me. Not one word.

OK, wanker here, and you’re a… I don’t know yet. That’s what brings me out in a cold sweat – the uncertainty, which haunts all slaves – because nothing is under their control, least of all what their new owner will be like.’ (Blood Shackles)

What’s your favouite quote and why does it work?