Ruth Rendell Quotes

I think to be driven to want to kill must be such a terrible burden".

I really do literally put myself into a character's shoes.

I never knew anyone actually buy cakes when they were hot ...

You make someone into a object of – not so much of pity as of weakness, sickness, stupidity, inefectiveness, do you see what I mean? You hit them for their stupidity and their inability to respond, and when you’ve hurt them, marked them, they’re even more sick and ugly, aren’t they? And they’re afraid and cringing too. Oh, I know this isn’t very pleasant, but you did ask.”“Go on” he said.“So you’ve got a frightened, stupid, even disabled person, silenced, made ugly, and what can you do with someone like that, someone who’s unworthy of being treated well? You treat them badly because that’s what they deserve. One thinks of poor little kids that no one love because they’re dirty, sovered in snot and shit, and always screaming. So you beat them because they’re hateful, they’re low, they’re sub-human. That’s all they’re good for, being hit, being reduced even further.

Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

The knives of jealousy are honed on details.

Maybe being married is talking to oneself with one's other self listening.

We always know when we are awake that we cannot be dreaming even though when actually dreaming we feel all this may be real.

I love memory sticks. They seem to me to be magic.

People are different in reality from the way you've seen them while making scenarios in your mind. For one thing, they're less consistent. They surprise you all the time.

To say that Agatha Christie’s characters are cardboard cut-outs is an insult to cardboard cut-outs.