“The English, thought Kate, obviously regarded praying much as they did a necessary physical function, something best done in private. Dalgliesh apologized for interrupting her work: “We’re police officers and I’m afraid we’re here on police business. Were you” — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“I was like a little boy showing off my toys, desperate to win approval.” — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“Pleasure need not be less keen because there will be centuries of springs to come, their blossom unseen by human eyes, the walls will… — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“What do you mean by sound government?' Good public order, no corruption in high places, freedom from fear and war and crime, a reasonably… — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“I have enough trouble living with my own neurosis without coping with other people’s.” — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“(A murderer about their victim:) "He was an expert in vicarious death. I should like to have been there to see how he enjoyed… — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“had found it difficult to sleep since my husband had been killed, and now I lay rigid under the canopy of the four-poster re-living the extraordinary day, piecing together the anomalies, the small incidents, the clues, to form a satisfying pattern, trying to impose order on disorder. I think that is what I’ve been wanting to do all my life.… — P.D. James Copy Share
“It had always been a part of his job which he found difficult, the total lack of privacy for the victim. Murder stripped away more than life itself. The body was parceled, labelled, dissected; address books, diaries, confidential letters, every part of the victim's life was sought out and scrutinized. Alien hands moved among the clothes, picked up and examined… — P.D. James Copy Share
“On the whole I’m glad; you can’t mourn for unborn grandchildren when there never was a hope of them. This planet is doomed anyway. Eventually the sun will explode or cool and one small insignificant particle of the universe will disappear with only a tremble. If man is doomed to perish, then universal infertility is as painless a way as… — P.D. James Copy Share
“Dalgliesh was too experienced to assume that fear implied guilt; it was often the most innocent who were the most terrified.” — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“The young seldom lie convincingly. They haven’t had time to practise like the rest of us.” — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“It is doubtful whether Mrs Bennet missed the company of her second daughter, but her husband certainly did. Elizabeth had always been his favourite… — P.D. James Copy Share Image
“She had quickly learned that to show unhappiness was to risk the loss of love.” — P.D. James Copy Share Image
