Ngaio Marsh Quotes & Sayings

Please don't entertain for a moment the utterly mistaken idea that there is no drudgery in writing. There is a great deal of drudgery in even the most inspired, the most noble, the most distinguished writing. Read what the great ones have said about their jobs; how they never sit down to their work without a sigh of distress and never get up from it witout a sigh of relief. Do you imagine that your Muse is forever flamelike
breathing the inspired word, the wonderful situation, the superb solution into your attentive ear? ... Believe me, my poor boy, if you wait for inspiration in our set-up, you'll wait for ever. — Ngaio Marsh

There are people to whom one need not show off. It's a great comfort sometimes. — Ngaio Marsh

Why do you want to become an author? I will accept only one answer. If it is because you feel you can write better than you can do anything else then go ahead and do it without frills and flourishes. Stick to your present job and write in your spare time: but do it as if it is a whole time job. — Ngaio Marsh

One should have the courage of one's loneliness. — Ngaio Marsh

You may be able to write a novel, you may not. You will never know until you have worked very hard indeed and written at least part of it. You will never really know until you have written the whole of it and submitted it for publication. — Ngaio Marsh

Custom makes monsters of us all. — Ngaio Marsh

Expectation is the springboard of achievement. — Ngaio Marsh

No coffee is ever quite as good as it smells ... — Ngaio Marsh

It is a curious thing that when one speaks from the heart it is invariably in the worst of taste. — Ngaio Marsh

No art should be fashionable ... — Ngaio Marsh

We do not wait for inspiration. We work because we've jolly well got to. But when all is said and done, we toil at this particular job because it's turned out to be our particular job, and in a weird sort of way I suppose we may be said to like it. — Ngaio Marsh

I tell you what," said Troy more amiably. "I've always been frightened of the whole business. Love and so on."
"The physical side?"
"Yes, that, but much more than that. The whole business. The breaking down of all one's reserves. The mental as well as the physical intimacy."
"My mind to me a kingdom is. — Ngaio Marsh

You must be able to write. You must have a sense of form, of pattern, of design. You must have a respect for and a mastery over words. — Ngaio Marsh

Above all things
read. Read the great stylists who cannot be copied rather than the successful writers who must not be copied. — Ngaio Marsh

If you go through life looking for insults, you may be comfortably assured of finding them. — Ngaio Marsh

As usual she had a deceptive air of perspicacity. — Ngaio Marsh