P. D. JAMES

Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.

What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.

In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets.

We English are good at forgiving our enemies; it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends.

God gives every bird his worm, but He does not throw it into the nest.

I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.

There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

You never forget the people who were kind to you in childhood, do you, sir?

The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.

Time didn't heal, but it anesthetized. The human mind could only feel so much.

If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk.

A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.

The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting.

It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more compassionate society, but not in a world with no future where, all to soon, the very words "justice," "compassion," "society," "struggle," "evil," would be unheard echoes on an empty air.

gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give.

A nation that can't remember its dead will soon cease to be worth dying for.

I knew the facts of death before I knew the facts of life. There never was a time when I didn't see the skull beneath the skin.

I don't see why escapist literature shouldn't also be a work of art.

There is no point in regretting any part of the past. The past can't now be altered, the future has yet to be lived, and consciously to experience every moment of the present is the only way to gain at least the illusion of immortality.

There are two options for any society: total prohibition as in a totalitarian state, or total license. Both avoid the ardours of decision. Both have the attraction of certainty. The difficult option is to decide where the line should be drawn and this, surely, is the responsiblity of any civilized and democratic country.

Perfect love may cast our fear, but fear is remarkably potent in casting out love.

Creativity doesn't flourish in an atmosphere of despotism, coercion and fear.

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft.