Books of quotations ... afford me one of the most undemanding but satisfying forms of reading pleasure.

Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.

Most of my life I have needed more time to be on my own.

Not so much two ships passing in the night as two ships sailing together for a time but always bound for different ports.

All these problems [deciding cases] are easier for people who believe in God. Those of us who don't or can't have to do the best we can. That's what the law is, the best we can do. Human justice is imperfect, but it's the only justice we have.

Absolute nakedness was intrusive, confusing to the senses. Paradoxically, it both revealed and diminished identity.

He didn't want her; he wanted me. Well, you know how it is." Dalgliesh did know. This, after all, was the commonest, the most banal of personal tragedies. You loved someone. They didn't love you. Worse still, in defiance of their own best interests and to the destruction of your peace, they loved another. What would half the world's poets and novelists do without this universal tragicomedy?