P. D. James quotes

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. (P. D. James)
I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism. View quote
P. D. James
Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not Governments. When governments are generous it is with other people's money, other people's safety, other people's future. View quote
P. D. James
We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life. View quote
P. D. James
I don't see why escapist literature shouldn't also be a work of art. View quote
P. D. James
We all die alone. We shall endure death as once we enjoyed birth. You can't share either experience. View quote
P. D. James
I can understand the poor and stupid voting for Marxism or one of its fashionable variants. If you've no hope of being other than a slave, you may as well opt for the most efficient form of slavery. View quote
P. D. James
We English are good at forgiving our enemies; it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends. View quote
P. D. James
I don't think writers choose the genre, the genre chooses us. I wrote out of the wish to create order out of disorder, the liking of a pattern. View quote
P. D. James
What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give. View quote
P. D. James
If from infancy you treat children as gods they are liable in adulthood to act as devils. (P. D. James)
You're going to have to, Xan. You may have to kill her, too. View quote
P. D. James
I don't think God bargains. View quote
P. D. James
Use some reverence. Remember what he was only a minute ago. You wouldn't have dared laid a hand on him. View quote
P. D. James
Oh yes he does. I may not be religious but I know my Bible. My mother saw to that. He bargains all right. But He's supposed to be just. If he wants belief He'd better provide some evidence. View quote
P. D. James
Whatever else I am now, I'm never bored. View quote
P. D. James
God gives every bird his worm, but He does not throw it into the nest. View quote
P. D. James
What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order. View quote
P. D. James
Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up. View quote
P. D. James
We do. The question is, how do you? View quote
P. D. James
I don't want to kill you. (P. D. James)
Marriage is both the most public and the most secret of institutions, its miseries as irritatingly insistent as a hacking cough, its private malaise less easily diagnosed. And nothing is so destructive as unhappiness to social life. No one wants to sit in embarrassed silence while his host and hostess demonstrate their mutual incompatibility and dislike. View quote
P. D. James
The Man Penal settlement. Do you know whats happening there? The murders, the starvation, the complete breakdown of law and order. View quote
P. D. James
I knew that what I had felt was envy or regret, not for something lost but for something never achieved. View quote
P. D. James
When my turn comes I propose to take my lethal capsule comfortably in bed at home and preferably on my own. View quote
P. D. James