Sue Grafton

“A lot of people were mistaken about a lot of things.”

“You kill people you hate or you kill in rage or you kill to get even, but you don't kill someone you're indifferent to.”

“She was the type who went to bars intent on conversation, while he was the type who went in hopes of being left alone.”

“Once upon a time, I'd come close to being killed in the big trash bin outside. This counts as nostalgia for someone like me.”

“About every six to eight months, I run into a man who astounds me sexually, but between escapades, I'm celibate, which I don't think is any big deal. After two unsuccessful marriages, I find myself keeping my guard up, along with my underpants.”

“Ghosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them.""I don't believe in ghosts," I said, faintly."Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there," she replied.”

“Beware the dark pool at the bottom of our hearts. In its icy, black depths dwell strange and twisted creatures it is best not to disturb.”

“I did discover that if you're interested in low wages, a bookstore ranks below retail clothing sales, except the hours are worse.”

“You try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.”

“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.”

“Too much virtue has a corrupting effect.”

“So much of the past in encapsulated in the odds and ends. Most of us discard more information about ourselves than we ever care to preserve. Our recollection of the past is not simply distorted by our faulty perception of events remembered but skewed by those forgotten. The memory is like twin orbiting stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed.”

“It's disconcerting to realize how little you have to say to someone who once occupied such a prominent place in your bed.”

“Grief is as contagious as a yawn.”

“Built into bad news is that sense of profound disbelief. The mind struggles to absorb the bare facts, defending itself against the larger implications.”

“The critical lessons in life hold sway whether you like it or not.”

“Perhaps when we're forced to forfeit what we own, we lose any sentimental associations. Perhaps pawning our valuables frees us in the same way a house fire destroys not only our worldly goods, but our attachment to what's gone.”

“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.”

“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”

“What could smell better than supper being cooked by someone else?”

“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”

“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.”

“The Latin term pro bono, as most attorneys will attest, roughly translated means for boneheads and applies to work done without charge.”

“I figure guys are like Whitman's Samplers. I like to take a little bite out of each and then move on before the whole box gets stale.”

“I love being single. It's almost like being rich.”

“I write letters to my right brain all the time. They're just little notes. And right brain, who likes to get little notes from me, will often come through within a day or two.”

“The hard thing about death is that nothing ever changes. The hard thing about life is that nothing stays the same.”

“I showered and shampooed. I even shaved the requisite legs and armpits just in case I fell in a swoon and one or the other was exposed to view. (Kinsey Millhone)”

“Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right - a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five. All those potential killers passing their plates.”

“If I'd been listening closely, I'd have caught the sound of the gods having a great big old tee-hee at my expense.”

“To many women mistake a man's hostility for wit and his silence for depth.”

“You can’t save others from themselves because those who make a perpetual muddle of their lives don’t appreciate your interfering with the drama they’ve created. They want your poor-sweet-baby sympathy, but they don’t want to change.”

“All of us are subjected to somebody else's power at some point. So once in a while you kiss ass. So what? Either you make your peace with that early, or you end up living your life as a crank and a misfit.”

“In my opinion, there's no condition in life that can't be ameliorated by a dose of junk food.”

“There's a certain class of people who will do you in and then remain completely mystified by the depth of your pain.”

“Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see many people doing it.”

“He might be a man without character, but she was a woman without courage. Of the two, which was worse?”

“It's pitiful to have a life in which junk food is awarded the same high status as sex.”