Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
44bc7e3	Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading.	reading life escapism	Ruth Rendell
b699c1f	We always know when we are awake that we cannot be dreaming even though when actually dreaming we feel all this may be real.	real dreaming mystery	Ruth Rendell
0c75f48	Don't hate anyone," she had said. "It's quite useless and harms the hater while it does nothing at all to the hated."		Ruth Rendell
72cd2c2	It was useless arguing with people like her. They had stereotyped minds that ran along grooves of stock response and the commonplace.		Ruth Rendell
c9fe539	You make someone into a object of - not so much of pity as of weakness, sickness, stupidity, inefectiveness, do you see what I mean? You hit them for their stupidity and their inability to respond, and when you've hurt them, marked them, they're even more sick and ugly, aren't they? And they're afraid and cringing too. Oh, I know this isn't very pleasant, but you did ask." "Go on" he said. "So you've got a frightened, stupid, even disabled ..	hatred prejudice injustice violence	Ruth Rendell
38dc3c8	She wasn't there. He wouldn't have had to look too closely. She stood out from others like an angel in hell or a rose in a sewer.		Ruth Rendell
e1d7b99	She didn't really know London, only lived in it.		Ruth Rendell
95b958f	People are different in reality from the way you've seen them while making scenarios in your mind. For one thing, they're less consistent. They surprise you all the time.	imagination perception	Ruth Rendell
cfe085e	Literacy is in our veins like blood. It enters every other phrase. It is next to impossible to hold a real conversation, as against an interchange of instructions and acquiescences, in which reference to the printed word is not made or in which the implications of something read do not occur.	taken-for-granted privilege	Ruth Rendell
9464a5f	Like all true eccentrics, he thought other people very odd.		Ruth Rendell
1d473b3	People were, as he had long suspected, uniformly vile and rotten, vastly inferior to things. Objects never let you down.		Ruth Rendell
036b8a3	I kill, therefore I am.		Ruth Rendell
c68f9b2	The sensations he had were shared by many of the young, poor and beautiful: how unfair it was that they should be denied benefits which the old and ugly enjoyed.		Ruth Rendell
055ac26	Burden thought irrelevantly that Wendy Williams must be attracted by bald men, first Rodney with his exaggerated forehead, naked as an apple, then this pebble-head.		Ruth Rendell
7fd3e0b	There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one ...		Ruth Rendell
67ffdc6	They remained the same and could be an endless source of pleasure and satisfaction. There might be people, or a person, of whom that was also true, but he had never, by the age of eighteen, come across any of them.		Ruth Rendell
0e08830	They spoke from a distant past when everyone read books and most people had hobbies, made things, played cards and chess, dressed up and played charades, sewed and painted and wrote letters and sent postcards.		Ruth Rendell
52eff0c	Goodness, Mr. Cellini, I've not time to answer all these questions. I've got to get on.' With what? She seldom did anything but read, as far as he knew. She must have read thousands of books, she was always at it.		Ruth Rendell
a2cea1a	I never knew anyone actually buy cakes when they were hot ...	metaphor hotcakes	Ruth Rendell
f038a07	He would have to get used to it, she thought. He would have to get used to her being more and more preoccupied with books.		Ruth Rendell
153bd63	He turned on to the track and wondered why no birds were singing. The only sound he could hear was the buzz and rattle of a drill, which he assumed to be the farmer doing something to a fence. It was, in fact, a woodpecker whose presence would have thrilled him had he known what it was.		Ruth Rendell
19f270b	His school had been so committed to establishing equality that the staff told a pupil he or she had done well only if they could tell every other member of the class the same thing.		Ruth Rendell
1cd7520	I can tell you, she really knows her job." "So do boa constrictors," said Audrey."		Ruth Rendell
2d404a0	the case of her following his directions and taking the footpath		Ruth Rendell
85117fc	Greed and envy took from a man's heart everything but--well, greed and envy.		Ruth Rendell
fa8a452	And it is true that we are warmed by being called by our names. We all know people who hardly ever do it, who only do it when they absolutely must. They manage to steer conversations along, ask questions, respond, without ever using a first name. And they chill others with their apparent detachment, those others who can never understand that it is diffidence which keeps them from committing themselves to the use of names. They might get the..		Ruth Rendell
b8a7345	home. Recognizing him, she said this before he		Ruth Rendell
23aec4f	He had a reasonable job as an actuary (whatever that was),		Ruth Rendell
d2569aa	answer him. He and the sergeant went to the head		Ruth Rendell
a78c0bb	shovelling		Ruth Rendell
360dfde	We should get over it.		Ruth Rendell
18ec5ca	every bit of flying dust. He began to take them down.		Ruth Rendell
0974abf	flying		Ruth Rendell
9025ac8	Was it possible people were heavier dead than alive?		Ruth Rendell
6271c4b	considerate		Ruth Rendell
d3b787d	Stanley was affable, even considerate.		Ruth Rendell
8f87036	And with an inventiveness no one would have suspected from the standard of Stanley's school work:		Ruth Rendell
7c7f582	your own now.		Ruth Rendell
a5bf998	work:		Ruth Rendell
2334855	many) and		Ruth Rendell
2200d04	ha-ha. Each suite had its own small		Ruth Rendell
bbd6706	figure. She was with her more than the other occupants of the house. "You're beginning to get stout, Bertha," she said, using"		Ruth Rendell
739c9e4	SECOND		Ruth Rendell
ebdf171	I'd never really		Ruth Rendell

Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Ruth Rendell

b699c1f

We always know when we are awake that we cannot be dreaming even though when actually dreaming we feel all this may be real.

real dreaming mystery

Ruth Rendell

0c75f48

Don't hate anyone," she had said. "It's quite useless and harms the hater while it does nothing at all to the hated."

Ruth Rendell

72cd2c2

It was useless arguing with people like her. They had stereotyped minds that ran along grooves of stock response and the commonplace.

Ruth Rendell

c9fe539

You make someone into a object of - not so much of pity as of weakness, sickness, stupidity, inefectiveness, do you see what I mean? You hit them for their stupidity and their inability to respond, and when you've hurt them, marked them, they're even more sick and ugly, aren't they? And they're afraid and cringing too. Oh, I know this isn't very pleasant, but you did ask." "Go on" he said. "So you've got a frightened, stupid, even disabled ..

hatred prejudice injustice violence

Ruth Rendell

38dc3c8

She wasn't there. He wouldn't have had to look too closely. She stood out from others like an angel in hell or a rose in a sewer.

Ruth Rendell

e1d7b99

She didn't really know London, only lived in it.

Ruth Rendell

95b958f

People are different in reality from the way you've seen them while making scenarios in your mind. For one thing, they're less consistent. They surprise you all the time.

imagination perception

Ruth Rendell

cfe085e

Literacy is in our veins like blood. It enters every other phrase. It is next to impossible to hold a real conversation, as against an interchange of instructions and acquiescences, in which reference to the printed word is not made or in which the implications of something read do not occur.

taken-for-granted privilege

Ruth Rendell

9464a5f

Like all true eccentrics, he thought other people very odd.

Ruth Rendell

1d473b3

People were, as he had long suspected, uniformly vile and rotten, vastly inferior to things. Objects never let you down.

Ruth Rendell

036b8a3

I kill, therefore I am.

Ruth Rendell

c68f9b2

The sensations he had were shared by many of the young, poor and beautiful: how unfair it was that they should be denied benefits which the old and ugly enjoyed.

Ruth Rendell

055ac26

Burden thought irrelevantly that Wendy Williams must be attracted by bald men, first Rodney with his exaggerated forehead, naked as an apple, then this pebble-head.

Ruth Rendell

7fd3e0b

There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one ...

Ruth Rendell

67ffdc6

They remained the same and could be an endless source of pleasure and satisfaction. There might be people, or a person, of whom that was also true, but he had never, by the age of eighteen, come across any of them.

Ruth Rendell

0e08830

They spoke from a distant past when everyone read books and most people had hobbies, made things, played cards and chess, dressed up and played charades, sewed and painted and wrote letters and sent postcards.

Ruth Rendell

52eff0c

Goodness, Mr. Cellini, I've not time to answer all these questions. I've got to get on.' With what? She seldom did anything but read, as far as he knew. She must have read thousands of books, she was always at it.

Ruth Rendell

a2cea1a

I never knew anyone actually buy cakes when they were hot ...

metaphor hotcakes

Ruth Rendell

f038a07

He would have to get used to it, she thought. He would have to get used to her being more and more preoccupied with books.

Ruth Rendell

153bd63

He turned on to the track and wondered why no birds were singing. The only sound he could hear was the buzz and rattle of a drill, which he assumed to be the farmer doing something to a fence. It was, in fact, a woodpecker whose presence would have thrilled him had he known what it was.

Ruth Rendell

19f270b

His school had been so committed to establishing equality that the staff told a pupil he or she had done well only if they could tell every other member of the class the same thing.

Ruth Rendell

1cd7520

I can tell you, she really knows her job." "So do boa constrictors," said Audrey."

Ruth Rendell

2d404a0

the case of her following his directions and taking the footpath

Ruth Rendell

85117fc

Greed and envy took from a man's heart everything but--well, greed and envy.

Ruth Rendell

fa8a452

And it is true that we are warmed by being called by our names. We all know people who hardly ever do it, who only do it when they absolutely must. They manage to steer conversations along, ask questions, respond, without ever using a first name. And they chill others with their apparent detachment, those others who can never understand that it is diffidence which keeps them from committing themselves to the use of names. They might get the..