Quotes from Laura Thompson

One of the oddest things in life, I think, is the things one remembers. One chooses to remember, I suppose. Something in one must choose.

she pronounced in an interview in 1964.10 'My father was a gentleman of substance, and never did a hand's turn in his life, and he was a most agreeable man.' He was also a fool, although not intellectually stupid by any means. He knew exactly the worth of the people around him, but it was not in his nature to present to them anything other than his 'agreeable' front.

Girls were always attracted to middle-aged men with interesting pasts.' The relationship is all about hero-worship on one side, youth-worship on the other

will never be called upon to enact: the mainstream is

At her very first attempt Agatha had understood – or intuited – that a clue based upon character has double the value.

Stirling formed a de facto private army that would cross picket lines in the event of a Communist coup. Michael

she saw imaginatively rather than accurately.

Passenger to Frankfurt ends with an affirmation in 'hope', 'faith' and 'benevolence'. So Agatha would have been shocked and grieved by the twenty-first century. She would have mourned the town in which she had dreamed, loved, run up hills with Tony the dog, lost her virginity to Archie Christie, become a writer. Above all she would have been saddened by the new English joylessness, for life to her was a sacred gift.

with you, criticise you, eat with you, quarrel with you, laugh with you, exchange ideas with you and find life more and more exciting because of you . . . you are one of the people and things (for you are a thing) that I valued, and found good in life .

a man should have knowledge of himself and belief in God').

she was lying about herself to find out the truth about herself.

God in Heaven listen to me, Listen to my whisper'd prayer Make me worthy, though so lowly, All his love and life to share.

the loss of certainty as a child had prepared Clara to expect the worst;

I am sure there is more to know Something to love Something to dream of Something to make And with that you can walk You can walk in the wood In the cool of the eve And when God walks beside you You are not afraid

The men of her family – Frederick, Monty – were lovable and weak. The women could see life for what it was and bear it.

The new world was the same as the old. The houses were different, the streets were called Closes, the clothes were different, the voices were different, but the human beings were the same as they always had been.

Expect the worst, because the worst is so often true, but have belief, have faith, have compassion.

Like most real writers, she was a stronger person in her books than in her life. But she had a constant urge to re-create the women of her childhood, the faith she had in their comforting omniscience.

She craved solitude, but not infinite solitude.

Half the troubles in life come from pretending to oneself that one is a better and finer human being than one is';

the creativity – and competitiveness – within Agatha would not be stilled. Her life was enchantingly ordinary. Her imagination was fierce and unstoppable.

Agatha, I don't love you merely with the glorious eyes of the blind, but I see you as you are.

the madness of exchanging mediocre but safe happiness for great happiness but possible disaster.

Later, she also saw that innocence need be nothing of the kind, and that conventional morality might have its own impurity.