Martha Grimes > Quotes

“Before you hate something you should try to understand it.”
― Martha Grimes, Dakota

“An idyllic childhood is probably illusion.”
― Martha Grimes, The Lamorna Wink

“Remember the great film with Bette Davis, All About Eve? There's a scene after the scheming Eve steals Margo's role through trickery & then gets this magnificent review. Margo of course is effing & blinding all over the place. And crying. Her director rushes into her house, puts his arms around her & says, "I ran all the way". That's what I want.”
― Martha Grimes, Dust

“We don't know who we are until we see what we can do.”
― Martha Grimes

“Melrose was so concerned that the [book]shop might close for lack of business, that he had suggested he would like to invest in it or even become a silent partner. "You see, books have always been a hobby of mine." Books had never been a hobby; they were a necessity.”
― Martha Grimes, Vertigo 42

“Elf made his way fuzzily back to the drawer, trying to think nasty thoughts about his tormentor (Mungo the dog) but he couldn't, as he was too little and his mind was formless and without messages.
( "Elf" the tiny kitten Mungo tormented )”
― Martha Grimes, The Black Cat

“Losing one's mind is surely like losing one's virginity. Lose a little, lose a lot.”
― Martha Grimes, The Old Fox Deceiv'd

“And so it continued all day, wynde after wynde, from a room beyond came the whistle of a teakettle. "Now, you really must join me. I've some marvelous Darjeeling, and some delicious petits fours a friend of mine gave me for Christmas.”
― Martha Grimes, The Man With a Load of Mischief

“If a cone had dropped on velvet needles, if a star had lain a silver track across the sky, if the dead had turned in their graves - I swear, I would have heard it, that's how silent it all was. ”
― Martha Grimes

“I read somewhere that we never completely forget a thing, that there are the imprints of everything we’ve ever seen or done, all of these tiny details at the bottoms of our minds, like pebbles and weeds that never surface from a river bottom.”
― Martha Grimes, Cold Flat Junction

“Polly was a writer of many deadlines. There were the ignorable deadlines, the not-to-be-taken-too-seriously deadlines: the deadlines-before-the-deadlines deadlines, and finally, the no-kidding-around deadlines. She set these various dates, she'd told him, to fool herself.”
― Martha Grimes, Rainbow's End

“Perhaps he was fit for the life of a hermit. Give up all of his worldly possessions and go live in a hut on a shelf of rock and watch the sunrise every morning. Up before the sun! What a dreadful idea; he shuddered.”
― Martha Grimes, The Lamorna Wink

“As he followed Wood, Jury thought: one disappearance, two auto accident victims, one in a mental institution, one drowned. One murdered. Rackmoor, for all its bracing sea air, didn’t seem the healthiest place in the British Isles.”
― Martha Grimes, The Old Fox Deceiv'd

“Old willows trailed veils of wet leaves across his path. Moss crawled up the headstones. The place was otherwise deserted.”
― Martha Grimes, Jerusalem Inn

“They’re an idea of home, I think. Words are. It really is like opening a door, isn’t it, to open a book. If that’s not too sentimental to say. Books, words, stories are a kind of solace.”
― Martha Grimes, Cold Flat Junction

“Tom says to Richard: You asked what I missed about the job. And that's it. But his tone had changed. The vanished fame, the lost acclaim, the old success.”
― Martha Grimes, The Old Success

“Macalvie, that was an incredibly lachrymose question.”
― Martha Grimes, Rainbow's End

“What does the absolutely final deadline apply to? What book?"
If there was one book that did not cry out for a sequel, it was "Death of a Doge". "Don't you remember what an awful time you had writing that book?”
― Martha Grimes

“Before Ernest could start walking back the cat, Melrose put in, “But isn’t it rather we who have come here, Mrs. Attaboy?” At her uncomprehending look, he plowed on. “It is their country.” “What? Africa?” “If Africa were a country, the answer would be yes.”
― Martha Grimes, The Knowledge

“He suspected, given her editorial experience, that she was in her fifties, but she had been coiffed, massaged, starved, and sunlamped down to forty.”
― Martha Grimes, The Old Silent

“It’s just,” Bobbi whispered, “not many women your age—”

“Oh. I get it. It’s because I’m an old woman.”
Etta had raised her voice at this so that the comment sailed up and down the table, earning Bobbi North looks that implied she had just disemboweled a baby monkey on her dinner plate. She quickly turned to the old geezer on her right, realized that was not the best choice and that she was pretty much stuck with the monkey on the plate. She asked the waiter for wine.”
― Martha Grimes, The Knowledge

“Melrose, smiling brightly at the butcher.”
― Martha Grimes, Rainbow's End

“Jury paused. “This is a onetime offer. It won’t come again. Choose.” Melrose prepared to laugh like hell, but managed only a bark. “Onetime offer? You mean if I don’t take you up on either of these jobs here and now, you’l I never ask me again?” “That is correct.” “Is this the most ridiculous conversation we’ve ever had?” “No, we’ve had more ridiculous.”
― Martha Grimes, The Knowledge

“What lay beneath this calm exterior was desolation. It was an emotion no kid should have to feel—not Benny, not Gemma, not himself back then. Yet he wondered if it wasn’t the legacy of childhood. At some point in the game, you would come to it, no matter how you were raised, no matter if you had a big family around you, desolation was inevitable, it ran beneath everything, the always-available unbearably adult emotion that clung to one’s still-breathing body like drowned clothes.”
― Martha Grimes, The Blue Last

“Melrose sipped his tea and ate his bun in perfect peace. How wonderful! Solitude even at Ardry End was hard to come by. Perhaps he was fit for the life of a hermit. Give up all of his worldly possessions and go live in a hut on a shelf of rock and watch the sunrise every morning. Up before the sun! What a dreadful idea; he shuddered.”
― Martha Grimes, The Lamorna Wink

“Metaphorically in his death throes, Chief Superintendent Racer still refused to die. Jury’s colleagues at New Scotland Yard had all been looking forward to Racer’s retirement last year. But it hadn’t occurred; Racer was still slouching toward it as if it were terminal. Having been so sure the Chief Superintendent was on his way out, they had rallied round the coffin (again, metaphorically speaking) only to find the corpse had scarpered and been resuscitated at its desk on Monday, Savile Row trousers knife-creased, buttonhole boutonniered. • • •”
― Martha Grimes, The Dirty Duck

“Emma, I want to tell you something about being right: being right is much harder on a person than being wrong.”
― Martha Grimes, Belle Ruin

“Having little to do with the present, Mr. Beaton had plenty of room for the past. Oh, yes, he read the papers and knew that governments came and went ("Conservative, Labor, Sociopath," Mr. Beaton would chuckle), but that made no odds to him.”
― Martha Grimes, Rainbow's End

“Sheba, who didn’t especially like me, although she did serve me cookies when I was here before. I’d managed to get rid of them. My mother’s cookies had spoiled me for anyone else’s. I think I crumbled up Sheba’s and tossed them off the porch. “How are you, Mr. Queen? I’m real sorry to”
― Martha Grimes, Fadeaway Girl

“Find her a good home, someone to take care of her. She’s a little girl, Melrose. She shouldn’t be spending her days at Heathrow, scanning for villains. She should be safe.”

The other members who were awake turned wide-eyed stares at Melrose, who was laughing so hard he was doubled up in his chair.

“Just what the hell is so funny?”

“Take care of her. This is Patty Haigh you’re talking about. The same Patty Haigh who got through Heathrow security on a pinched boarding pass; who wangled her way into B.B.’s good graces and flew to Dubai; who outwitted police in London, Dubai and Nairobi; who carries in her backpack a full selection of costumes and wigs to meet any eventuality; who requisitioned strangers to be her aunts, uncles, parents; who roamed around that godless slum, Kibera, on her own; who got into the Hemingways Hotel without paying a penny; who crossed the dark veldt between Kibera and Mbosi Camp protected only by her wits. This is the person we should keep safe!”
― Martha Grimes, The Knowledge