For me, the dead remain dead. If I couldn't believe that, I don't think I could go on living.

It's easy to get a reputation for wisdom. It's only necessary to live long, speak little and do less.

If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome?

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?

the most successful marriages were always based on both partners feeling that they had done rather well for themselves.

It shows considerable wisdom to know what you want in life and then to direct all your energies towards getting it.

gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give.