Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not. — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
And no book, and possibly no painting, when it is finished, is ever exactly like the first dream of it. — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
That wasn't a bad price for a first book. My agent upped it as much as possible. I was 27 and had… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“Thinking no more about it, he stepped off into that cool space, that fast descent to her, with nothing in his mind but a… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
I didn't hang around films. I don't know if I'd ever seen Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“I feel I stand in a desert with my hands outstretched, and you are raining down upon me.” — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
One situation – maybe one alone – could drive me to murder: family life, togetherness. — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“He felt he was about to experience again some ancient, delicious childhood moment that the steam calliope's sour hollowness, the stitching hurdy-gurdy accompaniment, and… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“It was a kind of arrogance, perhaps, to believe so in one's destiny. But, on the other hand, who could be more genuinely humble… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
I should love to do a novel, about one abnormal character seeing present-day life, very ordinary life, yet arresting through it, abnormality, until at… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“Dusk was falling quickly. It was just after 7 P.M., and the month was October.” — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“What chance combination of shadow and sound and his own thoughts had created it?” — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh. She had a vision of a pale-white… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
“That's exactly where you're wrong! Any kind of person can murder. Purely circumstances and not a thing to do with temperament! People get so… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
