P. D. James
P. D. James
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL, known as P. D. James, was an English crime writer. She rose to fame for her series of detective novels starring police commander and poet Adam Dalgliesh...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth3 August 1920
believe politician humbug
A politician is required to listen to humbug, talk humbug, condone humbug. The most we can hope for is that we don't actually believe it.
age caricatures old-age
Old age makes caricatures of us all.
writing order appreciate
read widely, not in order to copy someone else's style, but to learn to appreciate and recognize good writing and to see how the best writers have achieved their result. Poor writing is, unfortunately, infectious and should be avoided.
unique murder crime
Murder is the unique crime, the only one for which we can never make reparation to the victim.
successful feelings done
the most successful marriages were always based on both partners feeling that they had done rather well for themselves.
spring long enough
however long we have to live, there are never enough springs.
expectations essentials may
A picnic may well be a metaphor for life. The essentials for happiness are the right company, moderate if sanguine expectations and a reasonable standard of physical sustenance and comfort, the whole being bedeviled by the belief that there is always something better to be had if only one presses on.
youth immortality
Youth goes caparisoned in immortality.
people childhood kind
You never forget the people who were kind to you in childhood, do you, sir?
creativity atmosphere coercion
Creativity doesn't flourish in an atmosphere of despotism, coercion and fear.
prejudice letters may
A letter is paradoxically the most revealing and the most deceptive of confessional revelations. We all have our inconsistencies, prejudices, irrationalities which, although strongly felt at the time, may be transitory. A letter captures the mood of the moment. The transitory becomes immutably fixed, part of the evidence for the prosecution or the defence.
country two decision
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.
regret past way
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.
loss grieving tragedy
The tragedy of loss is not that we grieve, but that we cease to grieve, and then perhaps the dead are dead at last.