Quotes:
"London did not regard itself as a city but rather as an independent republic. Sometimes it seemed as big as Belgium; it could take a whole day to cross it by car."
-- The Kingdom by the Sea
Paul Theroux

"'It must be done directly; it must be done in London.'"
-- Emma
Jane Austen

"It was at night that London seemed strangest...The sky over North Kensington was starless, a sickly electric orange in which even the moon was hard to find. Deep into the small hours this synthetic sky glowed through the bedroom curtains, and I'd come awake, expecting to find it already afternoon."
-- Coasting
Jonathan Raban