Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBEwas an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott including Giant's Bread, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigative work of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Ariadne Oliver, Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 September 1890
CityTorquay, England
Many friends have said to me, 'I never know when you write your books, because I've never seen you writing, or even seen you go away to write.' I must behave rather as dogs do when they retire with a bone; they depart in a secretive manner and you do not see them again for an odd half hour. They return self-consciously with mud on their noses. I do much the same.
Of course I despise money when I haven't got any. It's the only dignified thing to do.
There are doubtless certain unworldly people who are indifferent to money. I myself have never met one.
I can't imagine why everybody is always so keen for authors to talk about writing. I should have thought it was an author's business to write, not talk.
The supernatural is only the natural of which the laws are not yet understood.
In my experience, people who go about looking for trouble usually find it.
Prisoners at the bar, have you anything to say in your defence?
Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human.
Bad temper is its own safety valve. He who can bark does not bite.
Authors were shy, unsociable creatures, atoning for their lack of social aptitude by inventing their own companions and conversations.
I've a theory that one can always get anything one wants if one will pay the price. And do you know what the price is, nine times out of ten? Compromise.
Juliet singles out Romeo. Desdemona claims Othello. They have no doubts, the young, no fear, no pride.
Three months seems to me quite a reasonable time to complete a book, if one can get right down to it.
What an absurdity to go and bury oneself in South America, where they are always having revolutions.