All P.D. James Quotes
- I wonder if childhood is ever really happy. Just as well, perhaps. To be blissfully happy so young would leave one always seeking to recapture… Always Going
- Not so much two ships passing in the night as two ships sailing together for a time but always bound for different ports. Always Bound
- Time didn't heal, but it anesthetized. The human mind could only feel so much. Anesthetized
- Absolute nakedness was intrusive, confusing to the senses. Paradoxically, it both revealed and diminished identity. Absolute
- People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death? Act
- I learned early and at that kitchen table that there are ways of avoiding, without guilt, the commitments of love. Avoiding
- Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the… Actual
- All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction. All
- History, which interprets the past to understand the present and confront the future is the least rewarding discipline for a dying species. Confront
- It is surely unreasonable to credit that only one small star in the immensity of the universe is capable of developing and supporting intelligent life.… Capable
- Without the hope of posterity, for our race if not for ourselves, without the assurance that we being dead yet live, all pleasures of the… All
- I don't want anyone to look to me, not for protection, not for happiness, not for love, not for anything. Anyone
- Feel, he told himself, feel, feel, feel. Even if what you feel is pain, only let yourself feel. Broken
- I am fifty years old and I have never known what it is to love. I can write those words, know them to be true,… Deaf
- If from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils. Act
- He didn't want her; he wanted me. Well, you know how it is." Dalgliesh did know. This, after all, was the commonest, the most banal… All
- Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic –… Ever Wasted
- Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell. Currently
- Learn to write by doing it. Read widely and wisely. Increase your word power. Find your own individual voice though practicing constantly. Go through the… Constantly
- If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and… Been
- It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more compassionate society, but not in a world with… Air
- It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed. Always Easy
- The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting. Allow
- God gives every bird his worm, but He does not throw it into the nest. Bird