'You took our joke of a Post Office, Mr Lipwig, and made it a solemn undertaking. But the banks of Ankh-Morpork, sir, are very serious indeed. They are serious donkeys, Mr Lipwig. There have been too many failures. They're stuck in the mud, they live in the past, they are hypnotized be class and wealth, they think gold is important.'
'Er...isn't it?'
'No. And thief and swindler that you are, pardon me, once w e r e, you know it, deep down. For you, it was just a way of keeping score,' said Vetinari. 'What does gold know of true worth? Look out of the window and tell me what you see.'
'Um, a small scruffy dog watching a man taking a piss in an alley,' said Moist. 'Sorry, but you chose the wrong time.'
'Had I been taken l e s s l i t e r a l l y,' said Loed Vetinari, giving him a look, ;you would have seen a large, bustling city, full of ingenious people spinning wealth out of common clay of the world. They construct, build, carve, bake, cast, mould, forge and devise strange and inventive crimes. But they keep their money in old socks. They trust their socks more that they trust banks. Coinage is in artificially short supply, which is why your postage stamps are now d e f a c t o currency. Our serious banking system is a mess. A joke, in fact.'

Безгранично люблю Пратчетта за то, что он так играючи вписывает грубоватые шутки в серьёзные и злободневные пассажи — от этого они становятся только лучше.


@темы: bookshelf