Rendell Quotes & Sayings

Haemophilia itself is bad enough. It is disabling day by day, even if far less incapacitating than in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But the added burden of life-threatening further illnesses from contaminated NHS blood is far worse. — Ruth Rendell

Everybody wants their fame. They long for it, and I think they don't much care how they get it - to attract attention to themselves. — Ruth Rendell

And the beautiful open spaces, the forests of Pennsylvania, the recreational uses that come from having these green open spaces and forests, they contribute dramatically to the level of our tourism, dramatically. — Ed Rendell

Nobody really lives in the present. — Ruth Rendell

I have said consistently both in my papers and in my speeches - which you heard in the primary campaign - that I will continue to phase out the Capital Stock and Franchise tax. — Ed Rendell

It sounds awful and sort of goody two-shoes, but I never eat between meals. — Ruth Rendell

Most people are motivated by the economy. And if you've lost your job, lost your mortgage, lost your 401(k), you're angry. And if your brother-in-law has lost one of those you're angry still. And when you're angry you take it out on people who are in office. Which is natural. — Ed Rendell

I'm a very bad Christian, but I am a Christian. — Ruth Rendell

I think if we're going to have to landfill trash, and I think we basically have to, we might as well get the upside for it and dedicate that upside to improving the environment in so many different ways. — Ed Rendell

The more you pander to what is, presumably, the taste of young people, the more you corrupt. — Ruth Rendell

I very much like writing about homosexual relations. I don't quite know why. Perhaps it's because I feel there's still so much to be said about them. — Ruth Rendell

Both my parents had strokes. My father had several, but the last one was fatal. It's a horribly disabling bug, a stroke. — Ruth Rendell

She wasn't there. He wouldn't have had to look too closely. She stood out from others like an angel in hell or a rose in a sewer. — Ruth Rendell

I think that all women, unless they are absolutely asleep, must be feminists up to a point. — Ruth Rendell

I think there's as much violence, in a way, as a scene with two women having a cup of coffee in a Ruth Rendell novel - in terms of emotional violence and the violence you can inflict with language - as there is in the most graphic kind of serial killer/slasher novel you can think of. — Mark Billingham

My father had several strokes and heart attacks. I was with him when he died, and it was a horrible death. He had been a very articulate man, and to lose that, never to be able to speak properly and to be unable to move - he had always been a very vigorous man, so to be in a wheelchair and mumbling - was terrible. — Ruth Rendell

You couldn't love someone the way he had loved her and then be turned off them in five minutes by nothing more than lies and daydreams. Could you? Could you? — Ruth Rendell

It doesn't matter what kind of book you write - you ought to write it well and with some kind of style and elegance. — Ruth Rendell

If the loving ones look on magic as evil then the evil doers shall win. For you are turning your back on the life forces themselves, and you shall be weakened by your fear, thirsting for the elixir. Those who would do evil do not fear the forces, they consume the elixir unabated. They are not living in fear of themselves. — Tamara Rendell

They spoke from a distant past when everyone read books and most people had hobbies, made things, played cards and chess, dressed up and played charades, sewed and painted and wrote letters and sent postcards. — Ruth Rendell

The storms inside uncoil
into sky held calm by far seeing eyes
Memories dressed in the translucent
trickery of the mind,
so as to wear life upon themselves,
give up their tired dance and run
into free frequency — Tamara Rendell

The I-95 bridges were built in the early 1960s and are now more than 50 years old. The same vintage as the I-35 bridge that collapsed in Minnesota back in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The antiquated Skagit River Bridge in Washington state that collapsed last May after a truck hit one of the trusses was even older. And it's not just bridges. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, 32 percent of the major roads in America are now in poor condition and in need of major repairs. — Ed Rendell

I have an idea, and I have a perpetrator, and I write the book along those lines, and when I get to the last chapter, I change the perpetrator so that if I can deceive myself, I can deceive the reader. — Ruth Rendell

My mother was a Swede who grew up in Denmark. When I go there, I visit the street where she grew up and look at her house, which is still there, and the snowberry bush, from which she ate some berries and had to have her stomach pumped. — Ruth Rendell

The trouble with psychology is that it doesn't take human nature into account. — Ruth Rendell

I get very tired of violence in crime fiction. Maybe it is what life is like, but I don't want to do it in my books. — Ruth Rendell

Well, the infrastructure part of the stimulus has worked. There's absolutely no question about it. We can demonstrate in Pennsylvania and other states around the union how it's produced good, paying jobs both on the construction sites and back in American factories. It has worked. — Ed Rendell

I think the president should be accessible, should answer questions that aren't pre-screened, but I think there should be a little bit of dignity to the presidency. — Ed Rendell

I think national issues play into gubernatorial races less than, obviously, in Senate and Congressional races. Much less. They tend to be more decided by personality, leadership qualities and by state or local issues. They still have some effect, no question about it, but not as much as Senate and Congressional races. — Ed Rendell

I have two quite large houses, and every cupboard and drawer is stuffed with books. — Ruth Rendell

Crimes are more often committed out of fear than wickedness. People live frightened, desperate lives. — Ruth Rendell

Creating new jobs for Pennsylvanians continues to be my highest priority throughout the Commonwealth. — Ed Rendell

The fires of night
through distance dance
ghosts who still know how to sing — Tamara Rendell

People were, as he had long suspected, uniformly vile and rotten, vastly inferior to things. Objects never let you down. — Ruth Rendell

I was a child, and in 1942, I was evacuated to the Cotswolds with my mother, who was a teacher - she went with her school. I lived in one house in the village, and my mother was in the vicarage. — Ruth Rendell

I think that people who make a lot of money - and I do - should certainly give a considerable amount of it away. — Ruth Rendell

The Medicaid system currently steers people toward nursing home care. Far more people can be covered in community-based care programs for significantly less. — Ed Rendell

She didn't really know London, only lived in it. — Ruth Rendell

I've had two proposals since I've been a widow. I am a wonderful catch, you know. I have a lot of money. — Ruth Rendell

I've done the big 12-city tours, and I'm never going to do that again - never. I was younger then. It wears you out, you know. — Ruth Rendell

There are a tremendous amount of environmental issues that are on the table. — Ed Rendell

I don't expect the sun to be always shining, or even want that to happen. — Ruth Rendell

Nobody will go on being remembered for a very long time, unless you're Shakespeare or Milton. I have no hope of being remembered at all. — Ruth Rendell

If I lose, I lose. I'll do it on my terms. — Ed Rendell

I call myself an agnostic. I'm open to change. I'm the same sort of person, although much less aggressive, as Richard Dawkins. — Ruth Rendell

Is regulation per se bad? Is better regulation bad? I think better regulation is good for the business community, and I think that's something we should get together on. — Ed Rendell

I'm not much of a shoe person, but I love a pair by Bruno Magli that I've had for 10 years. — Ruth Rendell

The English, although partakers in the most variable and quixotic climate in the world, never become used to its vagaries, but comment upon them with shock and resentment as if all their lives had been spent in the predictable monsoon. — Ruth Rendell

If there is but one pearl of wisdom I have to impart to you, after all my observations here thus far, it is do not take yourself too seriously. Because when you get here, you might just find that you are not exactly who or what you thought you were. — Natasha Rendell

It was useless arguing with people like her. They had stereotyped minds that ran along grooves of stock response and the commonplace. — Ruth Rendell

I don't know that I am fascinated with crime. I'm fascinated with people and their characters and their obsessions and what they do. And these things lead to crime, but I'm much more fascinated in their minds. — Ruth Rendell

But in the long run we're not going to be able to keep out of state trash away from Pennsylvania. — Ed Rendell

If you have spent any time with Barack Obama, you know he's a funny guy. He's a good guy. He knows sports. — Ed Rendell

I have had quite a lot of prizes, but I don't think it makes any difference to the ease or difficulty to the writing process. — Ruth Rendell

We are the second oldest state in the Union because too many of our young people are leaving Pennsylvania. They are leaving Pennsylvania behind for opportunities elsewhere. — Ed Rendell

I always write about what interests me. — Ruth Rendell

I don't think there is a fictional character who resembles me because fictional characters are not real! — Ruth Rendell

I think we all fear appearing foolish in public. We don't want to be laughed at. — Ruth Rendell

Goodness, Mr. Cellini, I've not time to answer all these questions. I've got to get on.'
With what? She seldom did anything but read, as far as he knew. She must have read thousands of books, she was always at it. — Ruth Rendell

Violence is very much with us, and we like to see it. I doubt if you can change that, and I'm not sure you should want to. I have occasionally been very upset by something I was writing, but it's quite rare: I keep my writing very separate from my life. — Ruth Rendell

I wouldn't be young again even if it were possible, but I am not going to pretend that growing old is all sweetness and light. — Ruth Rendell

There are only two periods in a woman's life when she hopes to be taken for older than she is, under sixteen and over ninety. — Ruth Rendell

London underground took me on a tour of all the hidden places, the disused shafts and staircases ... that was very interesting. — Ruth Rendell

I don't judge people. I don't think we should/ — Ruth Rendell

While most of the things you've worried about have never happened, it's a different story with the things you haven't worried about. They are the ones that happen. — Ruth Rendell

There are some novelists who can get away with writing about sex - Philip Roth, Ian McEwan - but they are rare. — Ruth Rendell

We no more forget the faces of our enemies than of those we love. — Ruth Rendell

I hate negative ads in general. — Ed Rendell

I always write about subjects which attract me because if I didn't, it would be awful, a failure. — Ruth Rendell

His school had been so committed to establishing equality that the staff told a pupil he or she had done well only if they could tell every other member of the class the same thing. — Ruth Rendell

It's not necessary with your friends to discuss something you know you will disagree profoundly on. — Ruth Rendell

He turned on to the track and wondered why no birds were singing. The only sound he could hear was the buzz and rattle of a drill, which he assumed to be the farmer doing something to a fence. It was, in fact, a woodpecker whose presence would have thrilled him had he known what it was. — Ruth Rendell

'The Da Vinci Code' was pretty awful. A good idea disappointingly handled. — Ruth Rendell

I've never really been satisfied with a book. I always want it to be better. — Ruth Rendell

I think it says something that I have never had an obscene letter. A young man once attempted one, but it was so totally illiterate and hopeless that it made me laugh. — Ruth Rendell

I don't think it's good for people to be born into money and not know what it is never to have it. — Ruth Rendell

I am neurotic, but I live with it. I think most people are, anyway. — Ruth Rendell

Ford Maddox Ford's 'The Good Soldier' is my favourite novel. I first read it in the 1950s and have read it about 20 times since. It's possibly the best-constructed book in the English language. — Ruth Rendell

It makes me actually quite angry to think about people writing about torture with a sort of relish. Horrible. — Ruth Rendell

It's living - a broad spectrum of living - that teaches you how to live, not philosophy. Philosophy teaches you how to think. — Ruth Rendell

The sensations he had were shared by many of the young, poor and beautiful: how unfair it was that they should be denied benefits which the old and ugly enjoyed. — Ruth Rendell

Reading is becoming a kind of specialist activity, and that strikes terror into the heart of people who love reading. — Ruth Rendell

I started by writing short stories, but they weren't very good; I tried them on various magazines, and none of them was published. People were nicer then about turning you down, and so I didn't lose heart - I kept on writing and wrote a lot of books, one or two of which I finished, and others I didn't. — Ruth Rendell

Would I be happy just practicing law? No. Would I be happy just doing TV and speeches? No. I want to do all of these things and be as active as I can ... but my main goal is to have some degree of influence on the public discussion. — Ed Rendell

As soon as I know it's about technological things or spies, I lose interest. I want to know what goes on in people's minds. — Ruth Rendell

I don't mind being distracted. I don't want to sit there in utter silence and type. If the phone rings, I usually answer it, speak for a few minutes and return to writing, or go for a walk in and out of the rooms. I don't mind a break. — Ruth Rendell

I kill, therefore I am. — Ruth Rendell

I don't like slapdash careless prose, and if I saw myself doing it, I would give up writing altogether. — Ruth Rendell

Some women say as they get older they're no longer noticed: they disappear. Men, for instance, don't see them. Nobody wants them. That doesn't happen to me because of who I am. Not because I'm any more scintillating company, but because I'm Ruth Rendell. — Ruth Rendell

I never write about a place I don't know. — Ruth Rendell

Here," he said, "I place the man I was aside the man I am now. And we have not the same hope nor thought, yet are one continuous breath from the body of I, Akiyama Akio. — Tamara Rendell

You don't knock television, even if you don't always like what they make of your work. It makes all the difference between being an also-ran writer and very famous. — Ruth Rendell

The treatment of patients with contaminated blood has been described as one of the most tragic episodes in the history of the NHS. — Ruth Rendell

One of the reasons we don't have our deficit under control is because Republicans are wusses and won't tell their base a simple fact that everyone knows. We can't eliminate the deficit without raising some revenue ... They're wusses. — Ed Rendell

If I were president, I am not sure that I would offer Ed Rendell the job of chief of staff. — Ed Rendell

People do sometimes ask me some really idiotic questions: 'Is your husband afraid of you putting arsenic in his food?' I replied that I have never written a book about poison, ever. — Ruth Rendell

newer here? There were no dense brambles, — Ruth Rendell

I - I love being told by people that they enjoy my books, and I think that's really very nice. — Ruth Rendell

I love memory sticks. They seem to me to be magic. — Ruth Rendell

I get up just before six and come downstairs, put food out for the cats, and open the cat flap. Then I work out for 35 or 40 minutes - I have a very large bathroom with an elliptical cross-trainer and a bicycle. — Ruth Rendell