Sue Grafton Quotes

Train yourself to listen to that small voice that tells us what's important and what's not.

God save us from the people who want to do what's best for us.

If your mind isn't open, keep your mouth shut too.

We all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that's where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we're busy denying.

Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.

If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them.

Kinsey was never a lawyer. She's strictly blue collar.

I was an English major in college with minors in Fine Arts and Humanities.

I love being single. It's almost like being rich.

I write letters to my right brain all the time. They're just little notes. And right brain, who likes to get little notes from me, will often come through within a day or two.

I've never known anyone yet who doesn't suffer a certain restlessness when autumn rolls around... We're all eight years old again and anything is possible.

When all else fails, cleaning house is the perfect antidote to most of life's ills.

A woman should never, never, never be financially dependent to anyone, especially a man, because the minute you were dependent, you could be abused.

The hard thing about death is that nothing ever changes. The hard thing about life is that nothing stays the same.

I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first.

No one with a happy childhood ever amounts to much in this world. They are so well adjusted, they never are driven to achieve anything.

People talk about dysfunctional families; I've never seen any other kind.

Pretending to be 'normal' is a lot harder than you think.

The struggle is what teaches you.

My job as the writer is to fool you. Your job as the reader is to see if you can catch me at it.

Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there.

In my opinion, there's no condition in life that can't be ameliorated by a dose of junk food.

Happiness is seasonal, like anything else

There are days when none of us can bear it, but the good comes around again. Happiness is seasonal, like anything else. Wait it out. There are people who love you. People who can help.

I think you'd best make your peace with the past since you've come this far. I think you know by now that you won't go back again.

Pay enough for anything and it passes for taste.

Dream big but think small.

The critical lessons in life hold sway whether you like it or not.

My primary lesson, however, was that I'm a solo writer, happiest when I'm making all the executive decisions. I've always been willing to rise or fall on my own merits.

Pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. Nobody seems to get that.

If you're unhappy, change something.

You never know which people will affect your life.

There's a certain class of people who will do you in and then remain completely mystified by the depth of your pain.

Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.

The memory is like orbiting twin stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed.

He might be a man without character, but she was a woman without courage. Of the two, which was worse?

I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I've learned to trust my own instincts and I've also learned to take risks.

After my years in Hollywood, I got tired of apologizing for work that really wasn't mine to begin with.

Society values cooperation over independence, obedience over individuality, and niceness above all else.

I spent the first twenty years of my writing career preparing for the mystery genre, which is my favorite literary form.

The character of Rosie is based on a woman who used to live in the same apartment building I lived in many years ago. She's taken on a life of her own, of course.

Grieving is like being ill. You think the entire world revolves around you and it doesn't.

You try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.

To many women mistake a man's hostility for wit and his silence for depth.

My notion of an elegant table is you don't leave the knife sticking out of the mayonnaise jar.

Everything happens for a reason, but that doesn't mean there's a point.

Lying contains the same hostile elements as a practical joke in that the 'victim' ends up looking foolish in his own eyes and laughable in everyone else's.

Poise and indifference so often look the same.

Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see many people doing it.

Insecure people have a special sensitivity for anything that finally confirms their own low opinion of themselves.