Quotes from Sue Grafton

Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see a lot of people doing it.

I'm not cute at all. I'm a very cranky person.

She held out her hand and we sat there together like grade-school kids on a field trip. "Line up in twos and no talking." Life itself is a peculiar outing. Sometimes I still feel like I need a note from my mother.

I'm an organism of the earth, a Taurus. I was never born of air, of water, or of fire. I'm a creature of gravity and I could feel the ground whisper. The same thing happens to me in old hotels when I'm staying on the twenty-second floor. I open a window and want to fling myself out.

It's a dangerous assumption and I know I shouldn't jump to conclusions, but it's always easier to pin suspicion on someone you dislike.

I showered and shampooed. I even shaved the requisite legs and armpits just in case I fell in a swoon and one or the other was exposed to view. (Kinsey Millhone)

I truly hate being a guest in someone's home...Worst of all, you have to 'make nice' at all hours. I don't want someone across the table from me while I'm eating my breakfast. I don't want to share the newspaper and I don't want to talk to anyone at the end of the day. If I were interested in that shit, I'd be married again by now and put a permanent end to all the peace and quiet.

Once upon a time, I'd come close to being killed in the big trash bin outside. This counts as nostalgia for someone like me.

I wondered if I'd ever be nice enough to volunteer for anything. I was hoping not.

The basic characteristics of any good investigator are a plodding nature and infinite patience. Society has inadvertently been grooming women to this end for years.

She was right about one thing: the harm in the world is done by those who feel disenfranchised and abused. Contented people (as a rule) don't kite checks, rob banks, or kill their fellow citizens.

That's the kind of person she was, a cat-kicker. What a bitch.

As long as you have sufficient toilet paper, how far wrong can life go?

The problem with real life is there's no musical score. In movies, you know you're in danger because there's an ominous chord underlining the scene, a dissonant melodic line that warns of sharks in the water and boogeymen behind the door. Real life is dead quiet, so you're never quite sure if there's trouble coming up.

Every violent death represents the climax of one story and an introduction to its sequel.

Things can fool you sometimes.

When it comes to work, it isn't so much what we do or how much we're paid; it's the satisfaction we take in doing it.

I know it's true because I made it up myself.

Violent death is like a monster. The closer you get to it, the more damage you sustain if you survive at all.

When I'm with you, I don't feel self-conscious or like I'm crippled or ugly. I don't know how you do that, but it's nice.

What was done was done.

There's nothinng like an outsider's idle glance to make you conscious of your own environment.

He stared at me. His breathing made that wheezing sound that fat people sometimes make.

My do now consisted of some really nifty spikes on top. I looked like a punker, but it was kind of fun, if you want to know the truth. Next thing I knew I'd be getting my ears pierced and chewing gum in public, social sins my auntie had always warned me about, along with red nail polish and dingy bra straps.