P. D. James Quotes

When I heard, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, I thought, Did he fall or was he pushed?

I don't think writers choose the genre, the genre chooses us. I wrote out of the wish to create order out of disorder, the liking of a pattern.

I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.

we can forgive anything as long as it isn't done to us.

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more ­effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.

It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out, if only to preserve your sanity.

It shows considerable wisdom to know what you want in life and then to direct all your energies towards getting it.

Books of quotations ... afford me one of the most undemanding but satisfying forms of reading pleasure.

Don't just plan to write - write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.

Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell.

A nation that can't remember its dead will soon cease to be worth dying for.

Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not governments. When governments are generous it is with other people’s money, other people’s safety, other people’s future.

I can understand the poor and stupid voting for Marxism or one of its fashionable variants. If you've no hope of being other than a slave, you may as well opt for the most efficient form of slavery.

We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.