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

- Ruth Rendell

I get a lot of letters from people. They say "I want to be a writer. What should I do?" I tell them to stop writing to me and to get on with it.

- Ruth Rendell

The trouble with psychology is that it doesn't take human nature into account.

- Ruth Rendell

The knives of jealousy are honed on details.

- Ruth Rendell

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

- Ruth Rendell

Nobody really lives in the present.

- Ruth Rendell

the English, although partakers in the most variable and quixotic climate in the world, never become used to its vagaries, but comment upon them with…

- Ruth Rendell

I can't exist without books.

- Ruth Rendell

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

- Ruth Rendell