Why do you want to become an author? I will accept only one answer. If it is because you feel you can write better than you can do anything else then…

- Ngaio Marsh

You may be able to write a novel, you may not. You will never know until you have worked very hard indeed and written at least part of it. You will n…

- Ngaio Marsh

As usual she had a deceptive air of perspicacity.

- Ngaio Marsh

We do not wait for inspiration. We work because we've jolly well got to. But when all is said and done, we toil at this particular job because it's t…

- Ngaio Marsh

Expectation is the springboard of achievement.

- Ngaio Marsh

Above all things-read. Read the great stylists who cannot be copied rather than the successful writers who must not be copied.

- Ngaio Marsh

if you go through life looking for insults, you may be comfortably assured of finding them.

- Ngaio Marsh

No coffee is ever quite as good as it smells.

- Ngaio Marsh

You must be able to write. You must have a sense of form, of pattern, of design. You must have a respect for and a mastery over words.

- Ngaio Marsh