I made the rules I figured I could be the one to break them. I thought I would write about xenophobia, a hatred of foreigners. After I stated writing the story there was not a foreigner to be had. I did not want to just stick one in there so I could get a title out of it since it seemed like cheating. I never figured out how I could get out of this dilemma so I just called it X and weaved X traits into the story.
Sue GraftonYou 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 GraftonMy 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 GraftonAge plays cruel tricks on the human face; all our repressed feelings become visible on the surface, where they harden like a mask.
Sue GraftonA woman should never, never, never be financially dependent to anyone, especially a man, because the minute you were dependent, you could be abused.
Sue GraftonLying 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 GraftonSchool was a source of great suffering to me, but once I learned to read, I disappeared into books, where I was a happy visitor to all the worlds that sprang full-blown from the printed page.
Sue GraftonA is for Alibi, my first book, was published in 1982. As it happened the next couple of books took place in June and August of that year. Without meaning to I painted myself into a corner. The other issue was the aging process. I did not want my main character to age one year for every book so I slowed the whole process down. This way I could get through all 26 letters of the alphabet without making her 109 years old in 2015. I might end the series in either 1990 or on New Years Eve 1989.
Sue GraftonTrain yourself to listen to that small voice that tells us what's important and what's not.
Sue GraftonGhosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them." "I don't believe in ghosts," I said, faintly. "Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there," she replied.
Sue GraftonGhosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them.
Sue GraftonThere's a certain class of people who will do you in and then remain completely mystified by the depth of your pain.
Sue GraftonHe might be a man without character, but she was a woman without courage. Of the two, which was worse?
Sue GraftonWe all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that's where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we're busy denying.
Sue GraftonMy father taught me to love detective fiction writers such as Raymond Chandler. When I decided to have a hard-boiled detective series I did a lot of studying before I wrote the first book. I learned police procedure, the California criminal law, and many areas outside my expertise.
Sue GraftonIt's disconcerting to realize how little you have to say to someone who once occupied such a prominent place in your bed.
Sue GraftonSociety values cooperation over independence, obedience over individuality, and niceness above all else.
Sue GraftonYou 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 GraftonIt is a truth of human nature that we can ponder life's mysteries for only so long before we lose interest and move on to something else.
Sue GraftonThe beauty of word processing, God bless my word processor, is that it keeps the plotting very fluid. The prose becomes like a liquid that you can manipulate at will. In the old days, when I typed, every piece of typing paper was like cast in concrete.
Sue GraftonI've never written about my husband, Steve, or any of my children because I know them all too well. I see them in all their complexities which makes them impossible to render on the printed page.
Sue GraftonHaving reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.
Sue GraftonThe memory is like orbiting twin stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed.
Sue GraftonSo much of the past in encapsulated in the odds and ends. Most of us discard more information about ourselves than we ever care to preserve. Our recollection of the past is not simply distorted by our faulty perception of events remembered but skewed by those forgotten. The memory is like twin orbiting stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed.
Sue GraftonPeople in California seem to age at a different rate than the rest of the country. Maybe it's the passion for diet and exercise, maybe the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Or maybe we're afflicted with such a horror of aging that we've halted the process psychically.
Sue GraftonYou try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.
Sue Grafton