Top 88 Val McDermid Quotes

#1. I've never wanted to live in a ghetto or write in a ghetto. I want to write about a world that reflects the one most people live in. Gay people are just one aspect of that.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1454
#2. I think Jane Austen builds suspense well in a couple of places, but she squanders it, and she gets to the endgame too quickly. So I will be working on those things.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #13732
#3. Within the infant rind of this weak flower Poison hath residence and medicine power' Romeo and Juliet, II, iii

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #28546
#4. That was the trouble with moving houses; no matter how carefully you packed the books, they never ended up on the new shelves in quite the right place.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #44318
#5. I don't think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #64496
#6. It was a source of constant disappointment to Catherine Morland that her life did not more closely resemble her books. Or rather, that the books in which she found its likeness were so unexciting.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #70065
#7. It had seemed a good idea at the time to order the furniture for her new home online from a chain retailer.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #120285
#8. Admittedly, they [(places in novels)] didn't all have such ridiculous names as the ones in the Piddle Valley where her father's group of parishes was centered. It would have been hard to make credible a romantic fiction set in Farleigh Piddle, Middle Piddle, Nether Piddle and Piddle Dummer.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #146742
#9. On one hand, you've got 'decent' men, and on the other you've got neanderthal misogynist bawbags - and the middle ground is what's disappearing.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #158889
#10. You take the lead. He'll open up more easily to a copper than a mumbo jumbo man

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #170945
#11. Why do the police need to know where I am? In the hands of a benevolent government, they could be looking after your interests, but what if the next government isn't so benevolent?

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #189192
#12. The condition of rage is one in which I find myself starting my day - once I see the news headlines.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #191084
#13. He frowned as he struggled to remember. It was like watching an elephant crochet.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #233349
#14. I know that. I do watch Spooks.' Carol was surprised. 'You do? I don't.' 'You should. They do.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #243519
#15. The contemporary crime novel is, at its best, a novel of character. That's where the suspense comes from.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #276045
#16. Without work, without direction, his thoughts were like a hamster on a wheel, circling and dancing with no destination and no possibility of arrival. With

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #328162
#17. I'd like to be more spontaneous.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #407014
#18. I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #526397
#19. Back in the day, when I started, you were still allowed to make mistakes. You got to make your mistakes in public, in a way. I think the world was a more forgiving place when I started my career, in the sense that we got time and space to develop as a writer.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #528175
#20. We all present versions of ourselves. The person you are at work is not the same person you are at home. The face we present in our most intimate relationships is not the face we present to the world.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #537341
#21. We make high demands on the people we expect to deliver justice, and we don't always appreciate how much it eats away at them.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #594016
#22. I came from a working-class family, but I was supported by a grant system and had my fees paid, so I came out of Oxford with a debt of something like £200.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #629211
#23. Why are you only coming home just after three? Do you want a drink? I'm wide awake now.'
He could be so like a small child, she thought. Out of nowhere, all eagerness and curiosity.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #632358
#24. If I didn't like her so much, I'd hate her.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #638229
#25. The hardest thing about being a grown up is realizing there are no magic formulas to release the ones we love from pain. Maybe that's why I enjoy computer games so much; you get to be God.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #668487
#26. I won't be attempting to write Jane Austen-style prose - that would be suicidal. But I will attempt to bring the highest level of my own prose, and to make it sparkle.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #694140
#27. I said to Ruth Rendell, 'When you've written as many books as you have, it's easier.' She said, 'No dear, it gets harder'.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #712806
#28. Not even a hand-stitched suit could hide a body gone ruinously to seed. I was tempted to offer some fashion advice, but I didn't think he'd welcome the news that this year, bellies are being worn inside the trousers

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #721751
#29. It was a bit unimaginable when I began that I'd ever get to 25 books. But it was also unimaginable how much crime-writing would have changed.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #839627
#30. The nurse looked surprised. 'You're a bit high on the totem pole to be taking statements.' Carol debated momentarily how to describe her relationship with Tony. 'Colleague' was insufficient, 'landlord' somehow misleading and 'friend' both more and less than the truth. She shrugged. 'He feeds my cat.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #854622
#31. If you don't make the best-seller list, if you don't get shortlisted for any prizes, it's goodbye.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #862675
#32. I'm telling you the truth, Carol. Even though it's actually none of your business.'
She half turned, found a smile from somewhere and said, 'You're quite right. It is none of my business. Till tomorrow Tony.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #873031
#33. It was a lot easier to be optimistic about equality when you didn't have to confront the Neanderthals on a daily basis. When you could imagine that people were actually changing their minds because they'd stopped groping secretaries at the photocopier.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #882202
#34. I was thinking things had changed: that the next generation of men weren't as institutionally misogynist as the previous were. And then, suddenly, the Internet came along and gave them a platform to voice their feelings anonymously. And boy, did the bile come out.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #891632
#35. No. It's no the same. The interviewers want you to say what they want to hear. I want to hear what you have to say.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #901819
#36. We all make mistakes, Carol. Sometimes they're more expensive than others. But I don't deserve to lose you,' he said, spreading his hands in appeal.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #930757
#37. If you want to last more than five minutes as a private investigator, you've got to have the instincts of a chameleon. Gumshoes that stand out in the crowd are as much use to the client as a chocolate chip pan.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #931302
#38. They both possessed a victimhood that had been conferred because they'd both been guilty of being female in a world where some men believed they deserved never to feel powerless.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #938764
#39. It forced me to realise that I'd been blaming you for not being flawless. And none of us is flawless.' Another sigh. 'I was so angry with myself for what happened to Michael and Lucy that I had to turn my anger somewhere else and you were the easiest target.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #949577
#40. You can't prove a negative. I can't prove there are no such thing as vampires any more than you can prove you're not a lesbian.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #967515
#41. The bodies of two murdered women have been found this week. For the record, I didn't kill either of them.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #984605
#42. Growing up in Fife, you were aware that there were these creatures called lesbians, but it was in the realms of complete freakishness. And I didn't feel like a freak.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1012973
#43. I told her you were probably here'. 'Thanks,' Tony said. 'Did I mention she thinks her brother's murder is my fault?

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1015106
#44. I am the despair of my accountant; I am the plastic bags of receipts.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1025624
#45. I'm not into little boys till they're old enough to have their own credit card.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1033935
#46. Tell you what, just to prove I'm not, I'll let you top tonight. You'll be in charge. I'll be the one with handcuffs on.'
Carry on like this and you won't be wrong, Merrick thought to himself.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1051786
#47. One of the reasons we all still read Jane Austen is because her books are about universal things which still matter today - love, money, family. They haven't gone out of fashion, so it's not throwing the baby out with the bathwater to rework her in a contemporary style.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1059671
#48. Everybody's got the right to go to hell in the handcart of their choice.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1072317
#49. I was just finishing up my drink then I was off to get the night bus.' Carol grinned. 'Your sophistication never ceases to amaze me. What's wrong with a taxi?' 'You get a better class of nutter on the night bus. I blend in perfectly

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1113155
#50. You know it's a bad case when the only way you can catch up on your sleep is to get unconscious.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1124659
#51. No woman is a heroine to her dentist.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1174837
#52. When all else fails, go for the ego.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1199230
#53. Sometimes fear is used as a way to control.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1209325
#54. The Glasgow accent was so strong you could have built a bridge with it and known it would outlast the civilization that spawned it

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1221236
#55. Proportion than she

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1241195
#56. Sometimes, the only things that make you feel good are the same ones that worked when you were five. Yes, I slammed the door

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1248614
#57. You know, I've often wondered. It's pretty clear what they were up to in Sodom, but what do you suppose the sin of Gomorrah was?' Carol asked.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1271748
#58. I don't think of myself as Scottish or lesbian when I sit down and write. I am glad I have broken out of that limited audience.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1289259
#59. As Richard has pointed out on several occasions, I subscribe to the irregular verb theory of life: I am a trained investigator, you have a healthy curiosity, she/he is a nosy parker.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1323148
#60. You've always been handy with a knife, Mother

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1324322
#61. I think that crime is a good vehicle for looking at society in general because the nature of the crime novel means that you draw on a wide group of social possibilities.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1334706
#62. She'd cook like an angel and fuck like a whore

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1383154
#63. He spread his hands in a self-deprecating gesture. 'Well, I'm not a cop. And I'm not a woman.' She couldn't resist. 'I had noticed.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1396881
#64. Walking by water frees your creativity. I don't know how it works - there's something about it that's liberating.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1409678
#65. I did want to be Joni Mitchell for quite a long time.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1414670
#66. I have a vernacular house on the seaside in Northumberland and an Edwardian semi in south Manchester. They're both exactly as big as they need to be. I can't be doing with an ostentatious, big house - you can only be in one room at a time.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1513108
#67. Steve Mosby has become one of a handful of writers who make me excited about crime fiction.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1526771
#68. Time for the likeliest story since Mary told Joseph it was God's.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1529367
#69. Patsy McDonald had the artificial brightness and dead eyes that go hand in hand with prescription antidepressants. They

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1538979
#70. The thing is that quite a few of my books have ended up as they are because of conversations I've had over the years with forensic scientists.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1545313
#71. Tony got up from his desk and crouched down beside her. She was instantly aware of the smell of him, a mixture of shampoo and his own fain, animal scent.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1545316
#72. What do you think, boy? is he just another lying bastard, or what?' 'Prrrt,' the cat said on a rising intonation, his eyes closed to slits. 'I thought you'd say that. I agree, I know how to pick them,

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1546215
#73. A lot of reality TV is repellent, but that doesn't diminish the qualities of some of the people who take part. There are decent people in there who have no alternatives.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1580911
#74. The discipline is based on one grisly fact: a corpse makes a good lunch.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1598848
#75. It's not magic that takes us to another world - it's storytelling.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1606625
#76. Around five-eight, slim, good shoulders, narrow hips, legs and trunk in proportion, short dark hair, side parting, dark eyes, probably blue, shadows under the eyes, fair skin, average nose, wide mouth, lower lip fuller than upper.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1627191
#77. Attractive smile, Carol added to her list of particulars as she shook the hand.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1635985
#78. A society gets the criminals it deserves.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1643259
#79. There is still a funny notion that women should not write violent fiction.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1677713
#80. You are Tadeusz Radecki? I am in the right place?' 'I know who I am. What I want to know is who you are.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1695723
#81. We weren't dirt poor, but there was no spare money kicking around. While it was very much understood that the way to a better life was through education, books were a luxury we couldn't afford. But when I was six, we actually moved opposite the central library, and that became my home from home.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1730098
#82. If only this mist would clear, it would be a lovely day," she said faintly.
"And if only the clouds would thicken up it would be a miserable day," Mr. Allen contributed from behind the paper. "It is what it is.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1735997
#83. Father, everybody has mugs these days. It's not a sign of debauchery and disrepute to drink tea from a mug.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1743231
#84. Nothing warms the cockles of the heart more than the smug self-satisfaction of being right.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1746530
#85. I failed her. And she's out of my life. I don't even know where she's living. What she's doing to get through the days. And I miss her. Every single day, I miss her.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1752366
#86. Junction at the top of the stairs. She gave a curious glance down General Tilney's corridor, but she

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1761324
#87. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents in the school holidays, and the only books in the house were a copy of the Bible and Agatha Christie's 'Murder at the Vicarage.' I developed a taste for murder mysteries and then later discovered libraries, second-hand bookshops, and jumble sales.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1775389
#88. It's only hunting you that keeps me from being you.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid Quotes #1877233

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