Grafton Quotes & Sayings

Ghosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them. — Sue Grafton

It's fun to horse around with danger. — Sue Grafton

There are times when an old rule should be abandoned or a current rule should not be applied. — Sue Grafton

There's always something else. That's what makes life so much fun. — Sue Grafton

What I could see of the apartment looked much like the office: gold high-low carpeting, Early American furniture, probably from Montgomery Ward. A painting of Jesus hung on the wall at the foot of the bed. He had his palms open, eyes lifted towards heaven- pained no doubt, by Ori's home decorating taste. — Sue Grafton

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. — Sue Grafton

As long as you have sufficient toilet paper, how far wrong can life go? — Sue Grafton

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. — Sue Grafton

You can't save others from themselves because those who make a perpetual muddle of their lives don't appreciate your interfering with the drama they've created. They want your poor-sweet-baby sympathy, but they don't want to change. — Sue Grafton

I don't know what is love about and I'm not sure I believe in it anyway. — Sue Grafton

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

Growing up had made her crabby, which happens to the best of us. — Sue Grafton

People who've had happy childhoods are wonderful, but they're bland ... An unhappy childhood compels you to use your imagination to create a world in which you can be happy. Use your old grief. That's the gift you're given. — Sue Grafton

He has all the uncanny intuitions of a psychopath. Have you ever dealt with one? It's almost like a form of mind-reading ... — Sue Grafton

Writing isn't about the destination-writing is the journey that transforms the soul and gives meaning to all else. — Sue Grafton

When it comes to work, it isn't so much what we do or how much we're paid; it's the satisfaction we take in doing it. — Sue Grafton

crayon. Age had given his face a softly — Sue Grafton

The truth is, I could no more dictate her nature than she could dictate mine. Kinsey's happy as she is and she doesn't need to be rescued, improved, or saved. — Sue Grafton

I hate nature. I really do. Nature is composed entirely of sticks, dirt, fall-down places, biting and stinging things, and savageries too numerous to list. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Man has been building cities since the year oughty-ought, just to get away from this stuff. — Sue Grafton

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

His stuff. His voice was — Sue Grafton

Four. I checked the other side — Sue Grafton

I'm a born liar myself and I know how it's done. You stick as close to the truth as you can. You pretend to volunteer a few bits of information, but the facts are all carefully selected for effect. — Sue Grafton

linen slipcovers, was as white as whole milk. — Sue Grafton

If I'd been listening closely, I'd have caught the sound of the gods having a great big old tee-hee at my expense. — Sue Grafton

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

Memory is subject to a filtering process that we don't always recognize and can't always control. We remember what we can bear and we block what we cannot. — Sue Grafton

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

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

The Copse at Hurstbourne is one of those fancy-sounding titles for a brand-new tract of condominiums on the outskirts of town. 'Copse' as in 'a thicket of small trees.' 'Hurst' as in 'hillock, knoll, or mound.' And 'bourne' as in 'brook or stream.' All of these geological and botanical wonders did seem to conjoin within the twenty parcels of the development, but it was hard to understand why it couldn't have just been called Shady Acres, which is what it was. Apparently people aren't willing to pay a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a home that doesn't sound like it's part of an Anglo-Saxon land grant. These often quite utilitarian dwellings are never named after Jews or Mexicans. Try marketing Rancho Feinstein if you want to lose money in a hurry. Or Paco Sanchez Park. Middle-class Americans aspire to tone, which is equated, absurdly, with the British gentry. — Sue Grafton

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. — Sue Grafton

Kim Bass, Receptionist, was nowhere to be seen. This was fortunate, as I was so irritated with the way she'd treated me, I might have bitten her on the arm. I'd been a biter as a kid and I can still remember the feel of flesh between my teeth. It's like biting a rubber bathing cap, in case you're curious. — Sue Grafton

The Latin term pro bono, as most attorneys will attest, roughly translated means for boneheads and applies to work done without charge. — Sue Grafton

The space smelled — Sue Grafton

My take on the indigent is that some are there because of temporary setbacks, some by default, and some for lack of an alternative. Some are needy, some are off their meds, some have opted out, some have been ousted from facilities where they might be better served. Many are there for life and not always by personal choice. Alcoholic, addicted, aimless, illiterate, unmotivated, unskilled, or otherwise unable to prosper, they sink to the bottom, and if they're down for any length of time, they lose the capacity to climb back out of the hole into which they've fallen. If there's a remedy, I don't know what it is. From what I've seen of the problem, most solutions perpetuate the status quo. — Sue Grafton

I've never been a big fan of exercise. I just can't think of any other way to feel good. Kinsey Milhone — Sue Grafton

Infidelity reduces and diminishes, leaving nothing where you once had a sense of self-worth. — Sue Grafton

Age plays cruel tricks on the human face; all our repressed feelings become visible on the surface, where they harden like a mask. — Sue Grafton

You kill people you hate or you kill in rage or you kill to get even, but you don't kill someone you're indifferent to. — Sue Grafton

Maybe life is just a straight shot from the horrors of grade school to the horrors of the nursing home. — Sue Grafton

I left him where he was and went down the hall to the kitchenette, where I picked up the coffeepot and filled it with water. I poured the water into the reservoir and then opened a packet of coffee, the grounds neatly sealed in a filter that I tucked into the basket. I flipped the switch and stood there until I could hear the gurgling begin. — Sue Grafton

I like difficulty. It's what makes my job fun. — Sue Grafton

We understood the consequences of any given action, we could exercise discretion, thus restructuring our fate. — Sue Grafton

Verbal clashes seldom come to a satisfying end. They peter out in weak retorts that leave you wishing you'd been as clever in the moment as you are in reviewing the conversation later. — Sue Grafton

I figure guys are like Whitman's Samplers. I like to take a little bite out of each and then move on before the whole box gets stale. — Sue Grafton

Of the first seven novels I wrote, numbers four and five were published. Numbers one, two, three, six, and seven, have never seen the light of day ... and rightly so. — Sue Grafton

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

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

Personally, I'd rather grow old alone than in the company of anyone I've met so far. I don't experience myself as lonely, incomplete, or unfulfilled, but I don't talk about that much. It seems to piss people off
especially men. (Kinsey Millhone) — Sue Grafton

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

Perhaps when we're forced to forfeit what we own, we lose any sentimental associations. Perhaps pawning our valuables frees us in the same way a house fire destroys not only our worldly goods, but our attachment to what's gone. — Sue Grafton

Writing is self-taught. Consulting other people only teaches you to depend on their reactions, which may or may not be legitimate. Quit looking for approval ... Learn to evaluate your own work with a dispassionate eye ... the lessons you acquire will be all the more valuable because you've mastered your craft from within. — Sue Grafton

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. — Sue Grafton

People make mistakes. People do things they never meant to do. — Sue Grafton

It's been my observation, after years in the [insurance] business, that a certain percent of the population simply can't resist the urge to cheat. — Sue Grafton

Built into bad news is that sense of profound disbelief. The mind struggles to absorb the bare facts, defending itself against the larger implications. — Sue Grafton

Writing is a process and you must trust the process! Fear and anxiety are part of that process along with the enthusaism and the good days and the joy and the passion and the great hopes you have for a book. But when you run into problems, when you get stuck or scared, you must trust that that is part of how a book comes to pass, and what you need to do is get very still and quiet because Self will tell you how to get out of a hole you've dug for yourself. — Sue Grafton

I should have reminded myself that people willing to cheat a little bit are generally dishonest throughout. — Sue Grafton

Had I known that these legs were to carry a Lord Chancellor, I would have taken better care of them when I was a lad. Duke of Grafton — Barbara W. Tuchman

Sometimes the hardest part of my job is the incessant reminder of the fact we're all trying so assiduously to ignore: we are here temporarily ... life is only ours on loan. — Sue Grafton

Personally I don't endorse the notion of mortality. It's fine for other folk, but I disapprove of the concept for me and my loved ones. Seems unfair that we're not allowed to vote on the matter and not one of us is excused. Who made up that rule? - Kinsey Millhone — Sue Grafton

Sometimes the noes are just as important as the yeses because they represent cul-de-sacs, allowing you to narrow your field of inquiry until you stumble into the heart of the maze. — Sue Grafton

Once upon a time, I'd come close to being killed in the big trash bin outside. This counts as nostalgia for someone like me (p. 317).
Kinsey Millhone in V is for Vengeance — Sue Grafton

I can't stand a man who fawns, you know what I mean? I can't stand a man sucking up to me, but he was the kind who took you right on the floor and he didn't even look at you afterwards when he zipped up his pants. — Sue Grafton

This was because his badge was attached to his belt in close proximity to his fly, and I didn't want to seem too interested. "Sorry to barge in unannounced," he went on. — Sue Grafton

Now [Sue Grafton] loves writer's block, seeing it as a message from the psyche that the narrative is headed in the wrong direction. — Colleen O'Connor

its embrace. The sky still claims them and we who honor them will hold them dear from this day forward. — Sue Grafton

There's nothing quite as irksome as someone else's mess. — Sue Grafton

Henry is entirely invented though by now I feel he's as real as anyone I know. — Sue Grafton

There's something inherent in human nature that has us constructing narratives to explain a world that is otherwise chaotic and opaque. Life is little more than a series of overlapping stories about who we are, where we came from, and how we struggle to survive. What we call news isn't news at all: wars, murders, famines, plagues - death in all its forms. It's folly to assign meaning to every chance event, yet we do it all the time. — Sue Grafton

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

Missing someone is a vague, unpleasant sensation, like gnawing anxiety. It isn't as concrete as grief, but it's just as pervasive and there's no escaping it. — Sue Grafton

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

What I wanted was to bang by forehead against the steering wheel till it bled. Maybe the self-inflicted pain would help me clear my thought process. — Sue Grafton

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

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. — Sue Grafton

Why is it that other people's plans so often seem ill thought out while our own make so much sense? I — Sue Grafton

There's really no such thing as an 'ex-cop' or a cop who's 'off-duty' or 'retired.' Once trained, once indoctrinated, a cop is always alert, assessing reality in terms of its potential for illegal acts. — Sue Grafton

It's not that gray water's boring, but the subject does have its limits. — Sue Grafton

And that touched off something else ... old sorrows, good friends gone down into the earth. Sometimes I picture death as a wide stone stair-case, filled with a silent procession of those being led away. — Sue Grafton

Sometimes I wonder what the difference is between being cautious and being dead. — Sue Grafton

For the record, I'd like to say that I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I have a chance to get even first
Kinsey Millhone, V is for Vengeance — Sue Grafton

Amazing how quickly someone else's problems become yours. Trouble creates a vacuum into which the rest of us get sucked. — Sue Grafton

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. — Sue Grafton

It's hard to keep passing myself off as a grown-up when a piece of me is still six years old and utterly at the mercy of authority. — Sue Grafton

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

I don't. I take it he was homeless." Aaron shrugged. "That's my guess. A group of them have been congregating in that grassy patch across the street from the Santa Teresa Inn. Before that, they camped in the park adjacent to the municipal swimming pool." "Who called it in?" He took off his glasses and polished — Sue Grafton

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

Life is simple. You're the one making things complex. — Sue Grafton

One immutable law of travel is that one's arrival or departure gate is always at the extreme outer limit of the terminal, especially if your bag is heavy or your shoes have just begun to pinch. — Sue Grafton

The louder he proclaims his honesty, the faster we count the silver. — Sue Grafton

Dream big but think small. — Sue Grafton

Ordinarily, an alibi is an account of suspect's whereabouts at the time a crime was committed and it's offered up as proof of innocence, but here it didn't matter where anyone was. — Sue Grafton

You can't go back to something once it's dead. — Sue Grafton

At that point, I sat down and made an alphabetical list of all the crime related words I could think of. So here I am now, nearly half-way through, probably tied up until the year 2015 or SO. — Sue Grafton

I know it's true because I made it up myself. — Sue Grafton

If love is what injures us, how can we heal? — Sue Grafton

If high heels were so wonderful, men would be wearing them. — Sue Grafton

Some death is as silent as the flight of a bird, some prey as unprotesting as a knot of rags. The — Sue Grafton

Happiness is seasonal, like anything else — Sue Grafton