Quotes & Sayings About Agatha Christie Writing

There you are, Ariadne," said Robin. "The whole plot of your next novel presented to you. All you'll have to do is work in a few false clues, and - of course - do the actual writing. — Agatha Christie

You start into it, inflamed by an idea, full of hope, full indeed of confidence. If you are properly modest, you will never write it at all, so there has to be one delicious moment when you have thought of something, know just how you are going to write it, rush for a pencil, and start buoyed up with exaltation. You then get into difficulties, don't see your way out, and finally manage to accomplish more or less what you first meant to accomplish, though losing confidence all the time. Having finished it, you know it is absolutely rotten. A couple of months later, you wonder if it may not be all right after all. — Agatha Christie

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties. — Agatha Christie

Plots come to me at such odd moments, when I am walking along the street, or examining a hat shop ... suddenly a splendid idea comes into my head. — Agatha Christie

She was a lucky woman who had established a happy knack of writing what quite a lot of people wanted to read. — Agatha Christie

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. — Agatha Christie

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. — Agatha Christie

God bless my soul, woman, the more personal you are the better! This is a story of human beings - not dummies! Be personal - be prejudiced - be catty - be anything you please! Write the thing your own way. We can always prune out the bits that are libellous afterwards! — Agatha Christie

To say that Agatha Christie's characters are cardboard cut-outs is an insult to cardboard cut-outs. — Ruth Rendell

I, myself, was always recognized ... as the "slow one" in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was ... an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day. — Agatha Christie

Bundle frowned. This business of the clocks was curious. She must get hold of Bill Eversleigh. He had been there, she knew. To think was to act with Bundle. She got up and went over to the writing desk. It was an inlaid affair with a lid that rolled back. Bundle sat down at it, pulled a sheet of notepaper towards her and wrote. Dear Bill, - — Agatha Christie

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. — Agatha Christie

I pass to the Stationery Department. I buy several fountain and stylographic pens - it being my experience that, though a fountain pen in England behaves in an exemplary manner, the moment it is let loose in desert surroundings, it perceives that it is at liberty to go on strike and behaves accordingly, either spouting ink indiscriminately over me, my clothes, my notebook and anything else handy, or else coyly refusing to do anything but scratch invisibly across the surface of the paper. I also buy a modest two pencils. Pencils are, fortunately, not temperamental, and though given to a knack of quiet disappearance, I have always a resource at hand. After all, what is the use of an architect if not to borrow pencils from. — Agatha Christie Mallowan

All I needed was a steady table and a typewriter ... a marble-topped bedroom washstand table made a good place; the dining-room table between meals was also suitable. — Agatha Christie

Writing is a great comfort to people like me, who are unsure of themselves and have trouble expressing themselves properly. — Agatha Christie

Three months seems to me quite a reasonable time to complete a book, if one can get right down to it. — Agatha Christie

Will you be so kind, Mademoiselle, as to write down your permanent address on this piece of paper?' She complied. Her writing was clear and legible. — Agatha Christie

The urge to write one's autobiography, so I have been told, overtakes everyone sooner or later. — Agatha Christie

Try as I might, Agatha Christie is unique. The actual writing style can't be exactly the same, so instead of trying to replicate it exactly, the way I got around it was by inventing a new narrator. — Sophie Hannah

Agatha Christie's writing is incredibly skillful because her books are incredibly intellectually puzzling and challenging. — Sophie Hannah

Even though I'm an ordinary writer, I too, have trouble when it come to writing along the way. But at least I manage to self-publish my book with no errors (hopefully). Just check out Agatha Christie, an author who also has a learning disability. She managed to be succesful. And I hope that I would be successful as her and Abishek Bachan. — Simi Sunny

In old days the public didn't really mind much about accuracy, but nowadays readers take it upon themselves to write to authors on every possible occasion, pointing out flaws. — Agatha Christie

You have a great advantage as a writer, Monsieur,' said Poirot. 'You can relieve your feelings by expedient of the printed word. You have the power of the pen over your enemies. — Agatha Christie

I have never been able to read Agatha Christie - the pleasure is purely in the puzzle, and the reader is toyed with by someone who didn't decide herself who the killer was until the end of the writing. — A.S. Byatt

The contemporary historian never writes such a true history as the historian of a later generation. — Agatha Christie

There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well. — Agatha Christie

I mean, what can you say about how you write your books? What I mean is, first you've got to think of something, and then when you've thought of it you've got to force yourself to sit down and write it. That's all." ~ Mrs. Oliver — Agatha Christie