Quotes from Colin Dexter

I write every day when I'm at home - trying to catch up with correspondence.

There's always time for one more pint. - Chief Inspector Morse

He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody ( Joseph Heller, Catch

He'd once read (or heard)—Disraeli, was it? (or Jimmy Bowden?)—that a man ought never to apologize; never to explain. He did neither

It's good to hope; it's the waiting that spoils it (Yiddish

summed up so well that it came to far more    Than the

All happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy

Morse, he knew, had the maddeningly brilliant facility for seeing his way through the dark labyrinths of human motive and human behaviour...

A man is little use when his wife's a widow. - Scottish Proverb

The secret of a happy life is to know when to stop and then to go that little bit further.

was with Ashenden that Morse's attention was immediately

It had been at the height of the summer heat-wave of 1995. One day when she had been wearing the skimpiest outfit the Force could ever officially tolerate, she had seen in Strange's eyes what she thought (and almost hoped?) were the signs of some mild, erotic fantasy. 'You look very desirable, my girl!' That's all he said. Was that what people meant by 'sexual harassment

During the times in which these events are set, there occurred a quite spectacular renaissance in fancy-dress occasions.

Man kann den Wald nicht vor Baümen sehen.

Sometimes procedures worked well; and sometimes (as now) there was every reason for the police to be congratulated on the way situations were handled. On this occasion one thing only (perhaps two?) had marred police professionalism.

the coolness of the wall mirror. He

no burdens were shed – they were merely passed from the shoulders of one to those of another.

post hoc, propter hoc

But he'd realized too, at the same time, that his capacity for jealousy was pretty nearly boundless.

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife

L'altro tizio era ricoperto di sangue?". "Quasi certamente sì. Tu cosa ne pensi?". Morse annuì. "Magari accidentale?". "Accidentalmente intenzionale. Morse, segnati queste parole".

Maximum mental energy' had never been Kevin's strong point.

As he lay abed on Sunday, 21 September, Morse was beset by the nagging feeling that there was so much to be done if only he could summon up the mental resolve to begin.

and one letter was protruding precariously