P. D. James

“I believe that the compulsions of the writer are related to the compulsions of the criminal.”

“All fiction is a form of instruction; it demonstrates how to feel, think, and act.”

“It's a mistake to think that we have to be lovely to be loved.”

“The greatest mystery of all is the human heart.”

“What a child doesn't receive, he can seldom later give.”

“Jealousy, that diseased crow of the soul.”

“Every writer has to make the decision of how much of his own life he is willing to sacrifice for his art.”

“The world is not a cozy place. It is not a nursery. It is a place of pain and conflict.”

“Perhaps it is the fate of all who are happy to be sometimes visited by the spirits of those who are not.”

“The desire to write is the desire to live forever in the minds of others.”

“Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.”

“Character is plot; plot is character.”

“We can experience joy in adverse circumstances, but the existential pain of losing a child is a pain that can never be healed.”

“I have always believed that the solution to a mystery should be rational.”