Quotes from Sue Grafton

People always love it when you say their dogs are nice. Just shows you how out of touch they are.

You can believe anything you like.

Death is insulting, and I resented its sudden appearance, like an unannounced visit from a boorish relative.

He looked like an actor who'd star in some movie about a doomed love affair between an heiress and a park ranger. I thought it was probably inappropriate to fling myself against him and bury my nose in his chest.

I thought about the current contamination of beaches, raw sewage spilling into oceans and streams, the hole in the ozone, forests being stripped, the toxic-waste dumps, the merry plunder of mankind added to the drought and the famine that nature dishes up annually as a matter of course. It's hard to know what's actually going to get us first. Sometimes I think we should just blow the whole planet and get it over with. It's the suspense that's killing me.

It's like people think just because you go to church you're not all that bright. I mean just because I'm a born-again doesn't mean I lost IQ points.

The practice of baring all, analyzing every nuance embedded in a quarrel, is a surefire way to keep an argument alive. Better to establish a temporary peace and revisit the conflict later. Often, by then, both parties have decided the issue isn't worth the relationship.

The Latin term pro bono, as most attorneys will attest, roughly translated means for boneheads and applies to work done without charge.

I'm a born liar myself and I know how it's done. You stick as close to the truth as you can. You pretend to volunteer a few bits of information, but the facts are all carefully selected for effect.

maybe it was time to at least pretend to be a nicer person than i knew i was

I did an about-face and veered into the sandwich shop. What I ordered is none of your business, but it was really good.

Growing up had made her crabby, which happens to the best of us.

Personally I don't endorse the notion of mortality. It's fine for other folk, but I disapprove of the concept for me and my loved ones. Seems unfair that we're not allowed to vote on the matter and not one of us is excused. Who made up that rule? - Kinsey Millhone

Amazing how quickly someone else's problems become yours. Trouble creates a vacuum into which the rest of us get sucked.

I can't stand a man who fawns, you know what I mean? I can't stand a man sucking up to me, but he was the kind who took you right on the floor and he didn't even look at you afterwards when he zipped up his pants.

Some people die accidentally. It's a fact.

It's hard to keep passing myself off as a grown-up when a piece of me is still six years old and utterly at the mercy of authority.

She was the type who went to bars intent on conversation, while he was the type who went in hopes of being left alone.

The world is full of talented people.

Sometimes the noes are just as important as the yeses because they represent cul-de-sacs, allowing you to narrow your field of inquiry until you stumble into the heart of the maze.

You can always push people around, but it's not a good idea. Better to let them volunteer information for reasons of their own. You get more that way.

It's fun to horse around with danger.

Nothing wrong with being single when you can do as you please without objection or complaint. The presence of the fur ball was icing on the cake.

The downside of fitness, which takes years to achieve, is how quickly it vanishes—almost instantly.