Ruth Rendell

“Evil is not a thing. It cannot take a form. It is a vacuum, a space where there is no good.”

“The worst of being a Communist is the terrible strain of having to be a good example.”

“London has always been a haven for criminals, and it still is.”

“It's a mistake to think that once you're done with your childhood you're done with childhood.”

“Jealousy, that diseased crow of the soul.”

“To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the morning and write.”

“Those who live in the past are cowards and losers.”

“I think the best fiction is about the moral life of human beings.”

“Hatred is a prelude to vengeance.”

“I don't think I have a demographic. I was built for the long run. I don't know any other way to be.”

“What is terrible is that after every one of the ladies dies, my book creation, my fictional ladies, my sisters, they also die.”

“I write every day. I'm always in the middle of a book; I'm a professional.”

“People don't change. If they do, they're just pretending.”

“Some of us are darkness lovers. We do not dislike the early and late daylight of June, but we cherish the increasing dark of November.”

“The novel is a mirror walking along a main road.”

“All my life I have been a bit of a chameleon, accommodating myself to my surroundings.”