P. D. James quotes

P. D. James was an English novelist renowned for her detective fiction, particularly the Adam Dalgliesh series. Her works are celebrated for their intricate plots, psychological depth, and atmospheric settings. She became one of the most respected crime writers of the twentieth century. Here are 84 of her quotes:

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.

P. D. James

Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not Governments. When governments are generous it is with other people's money, other people's safety, other people's future.

P. D. James

We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.

P. D. James

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

P. D. James

We all die alone. We shall endure death as once we enjoyed birth. You can't share either experience.

P. D. James

I can understand the poor and stupid voting for Marxism or one of its fashionable variants. If you've no hope of being other than a slave, you may as well opt for the most efficient form of slavery.

P. D. James

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

P. D. James

I don't think writers choose the genre, the genre chooses us. I wrote out of the wish to create order out of disorder, the liking of a pattern.

P. D. James

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

P. D. James

You're going to have to, Xan. You may have to kill her, too.

P. D. James

I don't think God bargains.

P. D. James

Use some reverence. Remember what he was only a minute ago. You wouldn't have dared laid a hand on him.

P. D. James

Oh yes he does. I may not be religious but I know my Bible. My mother saw to that. He bargains all right. But He's supposed to be just. If he wants belief He'd better provide some evidence.

P. D. James

Whatever else I am now, I'm never bored.

P. D. James

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

P. D. James

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

P. D. James

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

P. D. James

We do. The question is, how do you?

P. D. James

Marriage is both the most public and the most secret of institutions, its miseries as irritatingly insistent as a hacking cough, its private malaise less easily diagnosed. And nothing is so destructive as unhappiness to social life. No one wants to sit in embarrassed silence while his host and hostess demonstrate their mutual incompatibility and dislike.

P. D. James

The Man Penal settlement. Do you know whats happening there? The murders, the starvation, the complete breakdown of law and order.

P. D. James

I knew that what I had felt was envy or regret, not for something lost but for something never achieved.

P. D. James

When my turn comes I propose to take my lethal capsule comfortably in bed at home and preferably on my own.

P. D. James