Quotes from Sue Grafton

Lucky is the spouse who dies first, who never has to know what survivors endure.

Smile. It gives your face something to do.

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

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

A woman should never, never, never be financially dependent to anyone, especially a man, because the minute you were dependent, you could be abused.

You never know which people will affect your life.

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

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

If you're unhappy, change something.

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.

There are days when none of us can bear it, but the good comes around again. Happiness is seasonal, like anything else. Wait it out. There are people who love you. People who can help.

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.

Sometimes being fooled by love is worth the price. At least you know you're alive and capable of feeling, even if all you end up with is chest pain.

I'm not sure Kinsey has changed in these first twelve books. I think the reader learns more about her, but from Kinsey's perspective, only three years have passed while the rest of us have been getting older at a much faster clip.

I spent the first twenty years of my writing career preparing for the mystery genre, which is my favorite literary form.

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

It never pays to deal with the flyweights of the world. They take far too much pleasure in thwarting you at every turn.

A woman should never, never, never be financially dependent to anyone, especially a man, because the minute you were dependent, you could be abused.

I've never written about my husband, Steve, or any of my children because I know them all too well. I see them in all their complexities which makes them impossible to render on the printed page.

Pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. Nobody seems to get that.

After my years in Hollywood, I got tired of apologizing for work that really wasn't mine to begin with.

Kinsey was never a lawyer. She's strictly blue collar.

Writing is not about making a buck, not about publishers and agents. Writing is not about feeling good. Writing is about pain, suffering, hard work, risk, and fear.

People talk about dysfunctional families; I've never seen any other kind.