Val Mcdermid Quotes

Time for the likeliest story since Mary told Joseph it was God’s.

He frowned as he struggled to remember. It was like watching an elephant crochet.

That was the trouble with moving houses; no matter how carefully you packed the books, they never ended up on the new shelves in quite the right place.

Sometimes, the only things that make you feel good are the same ones that worked when you were five. Yes, I slammed the door

When all else fails, go for the ego.

The Glasgow accent was so strong you could have built a bridge with it and known it would outlast the civilization that spawned it

You know it's a bad case when the only way you can catch up on your sleep is to get unconscious.

The hardest thing about being a grown up is realizing there are no magic formulas to release the ones we love from pain. Maybe that's why I enjoy computer games so much; you get to be God.

We make high demands on the people we expect to deliver justice, and we don’t always appreciate how much it eats away at them.

I failed her. And she's out of my life. I don't even know where she's living. What she's doing to get through the days. And I miss her. Every single day, I miss her.

You know, I've often wondered. It's pretty clear what they were up to in Sodom, but what do you suppose the sin of Gomorrah was?' Carol asked.

It's only hunting you that keeps me from being you.

Father, everybody has mugs these days. It's not a sign of debauchery and disrepute to drink tea from a mug.

Everybody's got the right to go to hell in the handcart of their choice.

If I didn't like her so much, I'd hate her.

To move forward, you have to accept the truth of a situation. Not persist in myth-making.

I'm not into little boys till they're old enough to have their own credit card.

You've always been handy with a knife, Mother

The discipline is based on one grisly fact: a corpse makes a good lunch.

Patsy McDonald had the artificial brightness and dead eyes that go hand in hand with prescription antidepressants. They

It forced me to realise that I'd been blaming you for not being flawless. And none of us is flawless.' Another sigh. 'I was so angry with myself for what happened to Michael and Lucy that I had to turn my anger somewhere else and you were the easiest target.

It was a source of constant disappointment to Catherine Morland that her life did not more closely resemble her books. Or rather, that the books in which she found its likeness were so unexciting.

It was a lot easier to be optimistic about equality when you didn’t have to confront the Neanderthals on a daily basis. When you could imagine that people were actually changing their minds because they’d stopped groping secretaries at the photocopier.

She'd cook like an angel and fuck like a whore

We all make mistakes, Carol. Sometimes they're more expensive than others. But I don't deserve to lose you,' he said, spreading his hands in appeal.

You take the lead. He'll open up more easily to a copper than a mumbo jumbo man

They both possessed a victimhood that had been conferred because they'd both been guilty of being female in a world where some men believed they deserved never to feel powerless.

You are Tadeusz Radecki? I am in the right place?' 'I know who I am. What I want to know is who you are.

No. It's no the same. The interviewers want you to say what they want to hear. I want to hear what you have to say.

You always remember the first time. Isn't that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder.

Around five-eight, slim, good shoulders, narrow hips, legs and trunk in proportion, short dark hair, side parting, dark eyes, probably blue, shadows under the eyes, fair skin, average nose, wide mouth, lower lip fuller than upper.

I was just finishing up my drink then I was off to get the night bus.' Carol grinned. 'Your sophistication never ceases to amaze me. What's wrong with a taxi?' 'You get a better class of nutter on the night bus. I blend in perfectly

If you want to last more than five minutes as a private investigator, you've got to have the instincts of a chameleon. Gumshoes that stand out in the crowd are as much use to the client as a chocolate chip pan.

I don't like fighting,' he said. 'It makes me hurt inside. Like I'm a kid again. In the cupboard, in the dark. If the grown-ups are fighting, it must be my fault. That's why I don't do rows.' He blinked hard, to keep the tears at bay. She was the only person in the world who could make him feel so exposed. It din't always feel like a good thing. 'Carol, I'm going home tomorrow. I can't manage without you. Not in any sense. So can we stop this no? I can't do it.

It's a piece of cake, being a lawyer or a doctor or a computer systems analyst or an accountant. Libraries are full of books telling you how to do it. The only textbooks for private eyes are on fiction shelves, and I don't remember ever reading one that told me how to interrogate an eight-year old without feeling like I was auditioning for the Gestapo.

You can't prove a negative. I can't prove there are no such thing as vampires any more than you can prove you're not a lesbian.

Without science, there would be no you; without you, the future would offer a much narrower prospect.

Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, P.D. James, Ernest Tidyman, John Le Carré, Norman Mailer, Penelope Fitzgerald and Colin Dexter all transported

I know that. I do watch Spooks.' Carol was surprised. 'You do? I don't.' 'You should. They do.

To come up against someone who appeared not to give a damn about exerting petty power almost restored his faith in the public.

Nothing warms the cockles of the heart more than the smug self-satisfaction of being right.

As Richard has pointed out on several occasions, I subscribe to the irregular verb theory of life: I am a trained investigator, you have a healthy curiosity, she/he is a nosy parker.

What do you think, boy? is he just another lying bastard, or what?' 'Prrrt,' the cat said on a rising intonation, his eyes closed to slits. 'I thought you'd say that. I agree, I know how to pick them,

No two bodies will decompose in the same way, and at the same rate. You can have two bodies that are literally six feet apart and they will decompose in entirely different manners. It could be the amount of fat on the body. It could be the drugs they were taking, or the medication. It could be the type of clothing they’re wearing. It could be that one has a particular odour that is more attractive to flies than the other. Absolutely anything.

We see some of the worst things that mankind can do to each other and I still get shocked by some of the things that occur. Most people can go home and talk to their families about what they’ve done at work. We can’t. But even if I could, I don’t want my family to know some of the things that I’ve seen.

He looked so vulnerable and fallible, his shoulders slumped, his head down, that Carol's impulses overrode the decision she'd taken only minutes before to play it cool. She stepped forward and pulled Tony into a tight hug. 'If anyone can do it, you can,' she whispered against his chin like a cat marking its territory.

Without work, without direction, his thoughts were like a hamster on a wheel, circling and dancing with no destination and no possibility of arrival. With

wyvern.

It had seemed a good idea at the time to order the furniture for her new home online from a chain retailer.

They think of policemen as they do of Labradors – noble, loyal, good with children, man’s protector and friend. In

Nothing consoles you for the loss of someone you love. You absorb it into you. You move forward but you move in a different way.’ She

Alas, poor James is dead. / We see his face no more. / For what he thought was H2O / Was H2SO4

Grief is individual. Some like it public, some like it private. For some, it’s complicated because their relationship with the dead was complicated.

They'd all known each other long enough to forgive each other's faults, to accept each other's politics and to say what would be unsayable in any other company.

We never want to talk about the difficult things. But if we don’t they poison the good things in our lives.

It was one of those explanations that explained nothing but sounded impressive. Joseph

Discovering dedicated mystery booksellers was a bit like going to heaven without having to die first

Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind’.

junction at the top of the stairs. She gave a curious glance down General Tilney’s corridor, but she

The bodies of two murdered women have been found this week. For the record, I didn't kill either of them.

He spread his hands in a self-deprecating gesture. 'Well, I'm not a cop. And I'm not a woman.' She couldn't resist. 'I had noticed.

I told her you were probably here'. 'Thanks,' Tony said. 'Did I mention she thinks her brother's murder is my fault?

Attractive smile, Carol added to her list of particulars as she shook the hand.

Tony got up from his desk and crouched down beside her. She was instantly aware of the smell of him, a mixture of shampoo and his own fain, animal scent.

What it had done, however, was to give him a feeling of power and control that had taken him back to how he used to feel every day.

It wasn't enough but it was a start. It might keep him going...

Her anger was a memory now. She didn't believe in bearing grudges. She believed in killing them where they lay.

Why are you only coming home just after three? Do you want a drink? I'm wide awake now.' He could be so like a small child, she thought. Out of nowhere, all eagerness and curiosity.

With the passage of time, people’s memories always edited the past. A lot of details slipped from their grasp, while others that had seemed trivial at the time took on greater weight.

She watched his pale, square hands on the map, the short almost stubby fingers, with their neatly trimmed nails and a sparse scattering of fine black hairs on the bottom section of each finger. Appalled, she felt a stirring of desire. You're pathetic as an adolescent, she savagely chided herself. Like a teenager who fancies the first teacher who says anything nice about your work. Grow up, Jordan!

Not even a hand-stitched suit could hide a body gone ruinously to seed. I was tempted to offer some fashion advice, but I didn't think he'd welcome the news that this year, bellies are being worn inside the trousers

Honestly, Mum, how can you say someone's a great writer if you've got a stack of reference books next to you? It's just showing off. If I behaved like that in front of other people, you'd totally tell me off when we got home. So.why is it alright for T. S. Eliot to swagger about like a complete know it all and make the rest of us feel stupid?

We take the staples of modern life so much for granted until we’re deprived of them. People do live quite well without what we consider to be basics, but they manage because they’ve never been de-skilled by their presence. To lose them when you’ve lived all your life with power at the touch of a switch and water at the turn of a tap is shocking, then unsettling, then grindingly depressing.

Look at you. Finally, you look upset. Is that what's bothering you now?' She stepped close to him and pushed him hard in the chest, making him stumble backwards. 'The fact that you didn't predict this? Didn't work it out? That you're not as smart as you thought you were? the great Tony Hill fucked up and now my brother's dead?' She pushed him again and he had to twist away to avoid falling down the stairs.

There’s a thing called narcissistic personality disorder. People who have an inflated sense of their own importance, a lack of empathy for others. They’re vain, they crave the power over others they think they deserve. They can be arrogant and callous. They think they’re better than everybody else and they don’t care who they trample on in their desire to get what they want.’ ‘A bit like Donald Trump, then?

I just think sometimes, they were kids once. They ran about the park kicking a football. They had things they wanted to be. Nobody dreams about being that guy there. Nobody sets out to be like him. And we keep coming up against folk that have got themselves completely fucked up.

To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness; let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death.’ Michel de Montaigne, Essais (1580)

Admittedly, they [(places in novels)] didn't all have such ridiculous names as the ones in the Piddle Valley where her father's group of parishes was centered. It would have been hard to make credible a romantic fiction set in Farleigh Piddle, Middle Piddle, Nether Piddle and Piddle Dummer.

The nurse looked surprised. 'You're a bit high on the totem pole to be taking statements.' Carol debated momentarily how to describe her relationship with Tony. 'Colleague' was insufficient, 'landlord' somehow misleading and 'friend' both more and less than the truth. She shrugged. 'He feeds my cat.

As with arsenical candles and papers and fabrics, items become established in commerce before their dangers are recognized, ensuring that any attempt to curtail their use will be resisted by manufacturers … and fought or ignored by politicians ideologically opposed to government interference …’ Gettler’s

He knew he could devastate her and drive her from him with a handful of well-chosen sentences. And part of him wanted to do just that. Part of him wanted to banish her and her presumptions from his life. He'd travel further and faster and lighter without her. Then an appalling thought battled through his anger. You sound just like Vanessa.

Within the infant rind of this weak flower Poison hath residence and medicine power’ Romeo and Juliet, II, iii

sempiternal

louring

ziggurat

proportion than she

discreetly flashed its lights.

Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for his son to upload to his iPod and listen to on the day of his burial.

people are shaped by what happens to them and how they respond to it.

The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn. David Russell

when us profilers

But also, surprisingly, Charles Willeford, Ken Bruen and James Sallis.

It’s your fault because you got me into Morag Fraser. I’d never even heard of the Hebridean Harpies series till you dragged me along to her event. And now I am totally hooked. I was reading Vampires on Vatersay till one in the morning. I just had to finish it. And then I started Banshees of Berneray at breakfast and I could hardly drag myself away from it to come and meet you.

If only this mist would clear, it would be a lovely day," she said faintly. "And if only the clouds would thicken up it would be a miserable day," Mr. Allen contributed from behind the paper. "It is what it is.

Any sensible person knows that it’s only postponing the evil hour, but when you’re in debt up to your eyeballs, you stop thinking straight. You get into this self-deluding fantasy that if you can just get over this hump, you’ll be heading towards getting straight again. Nobody cons themselves better than a bad debtor.

Everybody seemed to like Skype except him, Tony thought, closing his office door then settling in front of his screen. His dislike was both personal and professional. Everybody looked weird on Skype. Everyone, frankly, looked like a potential patient. There was something very unsettling about that fish-eyed stare. Even people he liked looked deranged. From a professional perspective, the trouble was you could never see enough of the person you were in conversation with to gauge their body language. They might be giving off all sort of signals you’d be aware of in what his boss had taken to calling “F2F encounters,” but the Skype interface could hide a multitude of clues.

Everyone thinks themselves unique when they fall in love. The truth is, we all lose ourselves in the same way. Whether it takes hours or days or weeks, we all find ourselves in a place of wonder and urgency, where we believe nobody has ever been before to quite the same degree. If everyone felt like this, our script goes, the world would come to a grinding, grinning halt.

A cold case was a story, constructed piece by piece. Sometimes the pieces arrived in the wrong order so it made no sense at first...at the end, if you found all the pieces, you had a coherent tale. Sometimes, though, you ended up with a stack of ill-assorted bits that didn't quite fit...Then it was like one of those novels that won literary prizes, the ones where you got to the end, closed the book and asked yourself, 'What just happened here?

The psychology of sanction.’ ‘If you’re right, then why does anyone protest against torture? Why don’t we all just go, “Oh well, we’ve seen how well it works in the movies, let’s just go along with it”?’ Carol leaned on her fists on the edge of his bed as she spoke, her tumbled blonde hair falling into her eyes. ‘Carol, you might not have noticed, but there’s a significant number of people out there who do say just that. Look at the opposition in the US when the Senate decided to outlaw torture just the other year. People believe in its efficacy precisely because they’ve seen it in the movies. And some of those believers are in positions of power. The reason we don’t all fall for it is that we’re not all equally credulous. Some of us are much more critical of what we see and read than others. But you can fool some of the people all of the time. And when spooks and cops go bad, that’s what they rely on.’ She

Back in 1963, kids weren’t supposed to have feelings like adults. Grown-ups fed them all sorts of tales to shield them from things, thinking to protect them. The worst crime to the adult mind was disrupting the routine, for nothing would serve as a better signal to the younger generation that something was seriously wrong. So the world could have been about to end back in the dale, but Janet and her cousins still had to be dropped off at the lane end and packed off to school like it was any other morning.