Crime fiction confirms our belief, despite some evidence to the contrary, that we live in a rational, comprehensible, and moral universe..

There are few couples as unhappy as those who are too proud to admit their unhappiness..

The weekend break had begun with the usual resentment and had continued with half-repressed ill humour. It was, of course, his fault. He had been mor….

Wars may be fought by decent men, but they're not won by them..

Perfect love may cast our fear, but fear is remarkably potent in casting out love..

The tragedy of loss is not that we grieve, but that we cease to grieve, and then perhaps the dead are dead at last..

Of the four billion life forms which have existed on this planet, three billion, nine hundred and sixty million are now extinct. We don't know why. S….

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft..

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life..

Every island to a child is a treasure island..

What was so terrible about grief was not grief itself, but that one got over it..

The greatest mystery of all is the human heart..

Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false..

Feel, he told himself, feel, feel, feel. Even if what you feel is pain, only let yourself feel..

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

All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction..

The great tragedy of Alzheimer's disease, and the reason why we dread it, is that it leaves us with no defence, not even against those who love us..

The world of the terminally ill is the world of neither the living nor the dead. I have watched others since I watched my father, and always with a s….

All these problems [deciding cases] are easier for people who believe in God. Those of us who don't or can't have to do the best we can. That's what ….

Authors always take rejection badly. They equate it with infanticide..

History, which interprets the past to understand the present and confront the future is the least rewarding discipline for a dying species..