I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you.

The past is the father of the present.

Evil never goes unpunished, Monsieur. But the punishment is sometimes secret.

There is no greater mistake in life than seeing things or hearing them at the wrong time.

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

To feel admiration for a man all through one's married life would, I think, be excessively tedious.

If I were at any time to set out on a career of deceit, it would be of Miss Marple that I should be afraid.