Top 100 Sue Grafton Quotes
#1. Now [Sue Grafton] loves writer's block, seeing it as a message from the psyche that the narrative is headed in the wrong direction.
Colleen O'Connor
#2. We all do things we regret. It's part of growing up.
Sue Grafton
#3. There's only so much room at the top of the heap. The rest of us are fill dirt.
Sue Grafton
#4. Memory is subject to a filtering process that we don't always recognize and can't always control. We remember what we can bear and we block what we cannot.
Sue Grafton
#5. The critical lessons in life hold sway whether you like it or not.
Sue Grafton
#6. When it comes to work, it isn't so much what we do or how much we're paid; it's the satisfaction we take in doing it.
Sue Grafton
#7. I find it so liberating when other people are rude. It makes me feel mild and lazy and mean.
Sue Grafton
#8. We understood the consequences of any given action, we could exercise discretion, thus restructuring our fate.
Sue Grafton
#9. I'm always aware that under the spritely twitter of birds, bones are being crunched and ribbons of flesh are being stripped away, all of it the work of bright-eyed creatures without feeling or conscience. I don't look to nature for comfort or serenity.
Sue Grafton
#10. I may have people lying to me, but since I don't really know the truth, I can't be sure.
Sue Grafton
#11. Writing isn't about the destination-writing is the journey that transforms the soul and gives meaning to all else.
Sue Grafton
#12. No one with a happy childhood ever amounts to much in this world. They are so well adjusted, they never are driven to achieve anything.
Sue Grafton
#13. its embrace. The sky still claims them and we who honor them will hold them dear from this day forward.
Sue Grafton
#14. Pretending to be 'normal' is a lot harder than you think.
Sue Grafton
#15. Get old, you might as well not worry about your dignity. Anybody talks about dignity for old folks has never been around one as far as I can tell. You can keep your spunk, but you have to give up your vanity early on.
Sue Grafton
#16. When all else fails, cleaning house is the perfect antidote to most of life's ills.
Sue Grafton
#17. When I'm with you, I don't feel self-conscious or like I'm crippled or ugly. I don't know how you do that, but it's nice.
Sue Grafton
#18. Haven't you ever heard of compromise?" "Oh sure," I said. "That's when you give away half the things you want. That's when you give the other guy half of what's rightfully yours. I've done that lots of times. It sucks.
Sue Grafton
#19. Pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. Nobody seems to get that.
Sue Grafton
#20. The truth isn't always nice. It isn't always small enough to absorb at once. Sometimes the truth washes over you and threatens to take you right down with it.
Sue Grafton
#21. There's always something else. That's what makes life so much fun.
Sue Grafton
#22. It's been my observation, after years in the [insurance] business, that a certain percent of the population simply can't resist the urge to cheat.
Sue Grafton
#23. A woman should never, never, never be financially dependent to anyone, especially a man, because the minute you were dependent, you could be abused.
Sue Grafton
#24. The problem with real life is there's no musical score. In movies, you know you're in danger because there's an ominous chord underlining the scene,
Sue Grafton
#25. I caution writers all the time to slow down and pay more attention to the work in front of them than to the end result. I don't think you write one book and get anywhere. I think you write five books and then maybe you are finally on the right path.
Sue Grafton
#26. What I wanted was to bang by forehead against the steering wheel till it bled. Maybe the self-inflicted pain would help me clear my thought process.
Sue Grafton
#27. The Latin term pro bono, as most attorneys will attest, roughly translated means for boneheads and applies to work done without charge.
Sue Grafton
#28. Sometimes I claim I write because I put in an application at Sears and they've never called back.
Sue Grafton
#29. I know it's true because I made it up myself.
Sue Grafton
#30. Of the first seven novels I wrote, numbers four and five were published. Numbers one, two, three, six, and seven, have never seen the light of day ... and rightly so.
Sue Grafton
#31. I can't stand a man who fawns, you know what I mean? I can't stand a man sucking up to me, but he was the kind who took you right on the floor and he didn't even look at you afterwards when he zipped up his pants.
Sue Grafton
#32. Whenever Jehovah's Witnesses appear at my door, I always ask for their addresses first thing, assuring them that I'll be around later in the week to plague them with my views. While
Sue Grafton
#33. Verbal clashes seldom come to a satisfying end. They peter out in weak retorts that leave you wishing you'd been as clever in the moment as you are in reviewing the conversation later.
Sue Grafton
#34. People who've had happy childhoods are wonderful, but they're bland ... An unhappy childhood compels you to use your imagination to create a world in which you can be happy. Use your old grief. That's the gift you're given.
Sue Grafton
#35. I don't know much about the Presbyterian faith, but the atmosphere alone was enough to put me off predestination.
Sue Grafton
#36. Another one of life's little jokes. I thought it was a tumor 'til it started to kick.
Sue Grafton
#37. I attended the University of Louisville my freshman year, transferred to what was then Western Kentucky State Teachers College for my sophomore and junior years, and then graduated from the University of Louisville in the summer of 1961.
Sue Grafton
#38. You can always push people around, but it's not a good idea. Better to let them volunteer information for reasons of their own. You get more that way.
Sue Grafton
#39. This was because his badge was attached to his belt in close proximity to his fly, and I didn't want to seem too interested. "Sorry to barge in unannounced," he went on.
Sue Grafton
#40. Grief rolled across the space between us like a wash of salt water.
Sue Grafton
#42. Death is insulting, and I resented its sudden appearance, like an unannounced visit from a boorish relative.
Sue Grafton
#43. Personally, I'd rather grow old alone than in the company of anyone I've met so far. I don't experience myself as lonely, incomplete, or unfulfilled, but I don't talk about that much. It seems to piss people off
especially men. (Kinsey Millhone)
Sue Grafton
#44. My primary lesson, however, was that I'm a solo writer, happiest when I'm making all the executive decisions. I've always been willing to rise or fall on my own merits.
Sue Grafton
#45. I made a stop, ducking into the supermarket to pick up milk, Diet Pepsi, bread, eggs, and toilet paper. I was into my siege mentality, looking forward to pulling up the drawbridge and waiting out the rain. With luck, I wouldn't have to go out for days.
Sue Grafton
#46. Maybe it was time to at least pretend to be a nicer person than i knew i was
Sue Grafton
#47. A man in a nylon bikini, with that little knot sticking out in front, isn't half as interesting as a man in a good-looking business suit. Charlie
Sue Grafton
#48. You can't make anyone love you and you can't stop anyone from dying.
Sue Grafton
#49. And that touched off something else ... old sorrows, good friends gone down into the earth. Sometimes I picture death as a wide stone stair-case, filled with a silent procession of those being led away.
Sue Grafton
#50. You can't go back to something once it's dead.
Sue Grafton
#51. Why is it that other people's plans so often seem ill thought out while our own make so much sense? I
Sue Grafton
#52. I write because it's all I know how to do. Writing is my anchor and my purpose. My life is informed by writing, whether the work is going well or I'm stuck in the hell of writer's block, which I'm happy to report only occurs about once a day.
Sue Grafton
#53. For the record, I'd like to say that I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I have a chance to get even first
Kinsey Millhone, V is for Vengeance
Sue Grafton
#54. People always love it when you say their dogs are nice. Just shows you how out of touch they are.
Sue Grafton
#55. Grieving is like being ill. You think the entire world revolves around you and it doesn't.
Sue Grafton
#56. Nothing wrong with being single when you can do as you please without objection or complaint. The presence of the fur ball was icing on the cake.
Sue Grafton
#57. On the way home, I stopped at the market and stocked
Sue Grafton
#58. I did discover that if you're interested in low wages, a bookstore ranks below retail clothing sales, except the hours are worse.
Sue Grafton
#59. She was the type who went to bars intent on conversation, while he was the type who went in hopes of being left alone.
Sue Grafton
#60. Happiness is seasonal, like anything else
Sue Grafton
#61. I wondered if I'd ever be nice enough to volunteer for anything. I was hoping not.
Sue Grafton
#62. Insecure people have a special sensitivity for anything that finally confirms their own low opinion of themselves.
Sue Grafton
#63. thinks he either kept it in his desk drawer at work or in the glove compartment of his car." Odessa
Sue Grafton
#64. It's pitiful to have a life in which junk food is awarded the same high status as sex.
Sue Grafton
#65. My best time as a writer is any day, or any moment, when the work's going well and I'm completely absorbed in the task at hand. The hardest time is when it's not, and I'm not. The latter tend to outnumber the former. But I'm a persistent little cuss. And I soldier on.
Meredith Maran
#66. I pictured a section of the ladies' auxiliary cookbook for Sudden Death Quick Snacks ... Using ingredients one could keep on the pantry shelf in the event of tragedy.
Sue Grafton
#67. People talk about dysfunctional families; I've never seen any other kind.
Sue Grafton
#68. I'm a born liar myself and I know how it's done. You stick as close to the truth as you can. You pretend to volunteer a few bits of information, but the facts are all carefully selected for effect.
Sue Grafton
#69. It's like people think just because you go to church you're not all that bright. I mean just because I'm a born-again doesn't mean I lost IQ points.
Sue Grafton
#70. Growing up had made her crabby, which happens to the best of us.
Sue Grafton
#72. All you have to do is wait until she's asleep
Sue Grafton
#73. Any mystery writer is both magician and moralist ... two species of artist in short supply.
Sue Grafton
#74. crayon. Age had given his face a softly
Sue Grafton
#75. My father taught me to love detective fiction writers such as Raymond Chandler. When I decided to have a hard-boiled detective series I did a lot of studying before I wrote the first book. I learned police procedure, the California criminal law, and many areas outside my expertise.
Sue Grafton
#77. Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there,
Sue Grafton
#79. Sometimes being fooled by love is worth the price. At least you know you're alive and capable of feeling, even if all you end up with is chest pain.
Sue Grafton
#80. I love being single. It's almost like being rich.
Sue Grafton
#81. Law and order, punishment and fair play, are all on a continuum where there are far more gray stretches than there are black and white.
Sue Grafton
#82. Ghosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them.
Sue Grafton
#83. Pam is petite, a bristly little chihuahua of a human being. She is the only woman I ever met who claims to be ten years older than she actually is so everyone will tell her how young she looks.
Sue Grafton
#84. There's nothinng like an outsider's idle glance to make you conscious of your own environment.
Sue Grafton
#85. Ordinarily, an alibi is an account of suspect's whereabouts at the time a crime was committed and it's offered up as proof of innocence, but here it didn't matter where anyone was.
Sue Grafton
#86. You try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.
Sue Grafton
#87. If love is what injures us, how can we heal?
Sue Grafton
#88. I hate nature. I really do. Nature is composed entirely of sticks, dirt, fall-down places, biting and stinging things, and savageries too numerous to list. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Man has been building cities since the year oughty-ought, just to get away from this stuff.
Sue Grafton
#89. The beauty of word processing, God bless my word processor, is that it keeps the plotting very fluid. The prose becomes like a liquid that you can manipulate at will. In the old days, when I typed, every piece of typing paper was like cast in concrete.
Sue Grafton
#90. I started writing seriously when I was 18, wrote my first novel when I was 22, and I've never stopped writing since.
Sue Grafton
#91. The downside of fitness, which takes years to achieve, is how quickly it vanishes - almost instantly.
Sue Grafton
#92. I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first.
Sue Grafton
#93. Personally I don't endorse the notion of mortality. It's fine for other folk, but I disapprove of the concept for me and my loved ones. Seems unfair that we're not allowed to vote on the matter and not one of us is excused. Who made up that rule? - Kinsey Millhone
Sue Grafton
#94. As it is, we could not call mine a beautiful puss, but it does the job well enough, distinguishing the front of my head from the back.
Sue Grafton
#96. She held out her hand and we sat there together like grade-school kids on a field trip. "Line up in twos and no talking." Life itself is a peculiar outing. Sometimes I still feel like I need a note from my mother.
Sue Grafton
#97. Violent death is like a monster. The closer you get to it, the more damage you sustain if you survive at all.
Sue Grafton
#98. Kinsey was never a lawyer. She's strictly blue collar.
Sue Grafton
#99. These are the days that require discipline, when exercise is pure duty and the good feeling only comes later, consisting solely of self-congratulations for having done the job at all.
Sue Grafton
#100. Society values cooperation over independence, obedience over individuality, and niceness above all else.
Sue Grafton
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