gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give. — P. D. James Copy Share Image
What was so terrible about grief was not grief itself, but that one got over it. — P. D. James Copy Share
Work did bestow dignity, status, meaning. Wasn't that why people dreaded unemployment, why some men found retirement so traumatic? — P. D. James Copy Share
If you are proposing to commit a sin it is as well to commit it with intelligence. Otherwise you are insulting God as well… — P. D. James Copy Share
What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order. — P. D. James Copy Share
It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out,… — P. D. James Copy Share
Death ... obliterates family resemblance as it does personality: there is no affinity between the living and the dead. — P. D. James Copy Share
If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk. — P. D. James Copy Share
read widely, not in order to copy someone else's style, but to learn to appreciate and recognize good writing and to see how the… — P. D. James Copy Share
In youth we take egregious risks because death has no reality for us. Youth goes caparisoned in immortality. It is only in middle age… — P. D. James Copy Share
It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed. — P. D. James Copy Share
First-class travel, provided one hasn't to pay for it oneself, is the most insidiously addictive of life's luxuries. — P. D. James Copy Share
Can we ever break free of the devices and desires of our own hearts? Might not our conscience be telling us what we most… — P. D. James Copy Share
Metaphysical speculation is about as pointless as a discussion on the meaning of one's lungs. They're for breathing. — P. D. James Copy Share
