"All the motives for murder are covered by four Ls: Love, Lust, Lucre and Loathing."
- P.D. James
"What mattered at fifty-eight was what had mattered at eighteen: breeding and good bone structure."
"Unnatural death always provoked a peculiar unease, an uncomfortable realization that there were still some things that might not be susceptible to bureaucratic control."
"Her aunt and uncle worked fifteen hours a day in their desperate attempt to keep the corner shop in profit, and their Sundays were marked by exhaustion. The moral code by which they lived was that of ..."
"(A murderer about their victim:)"He was an expert in vicarious death. I should like to have been there to see how he enjoyed the real thing."
"When I am writing a novel, the setting, the characters, the action is clear in mind when I start -- so I believe. But it is only when these imaginings are written down, passing it seems almost physica..."
"We all die alone. We shall endure death as once we endured birth. You can’t share either experience."
"The world of the terminally ill is the world of neither the living nor the dead."
"You desire the end but close your eyes to the means. You want the garden to be beautiful, provided that the smell of manure is kept well away from your fastidious nose."
"The past can't now be altered, the future has yet to be lived, and consciously to experience every moment of the present is the only way to gain at least the illusion of immortality."