"Just because it's all interesting doesn't mean something can't be more interesting than the rest! And if there is something more interesting, I wanna see it." But of course glowing things doesn't seem too exciting, and so he's really just looking around randomly when Childermass asks that.

"Well, I did go to school once! But their magic didn't make any sense. It was all... Books, and rituals, and boring things like that. Not like real magic." Because of course if it isn't how he does it, it doesn't count as being real.