Minette Walters > Quotes

“It's [the word “sorry”] the most infuriating word in the English language. Just a cheap way to behave badly then shelve responsibility by putting the onus on the other person to be forgiving.”
― Minette Walters, The Chameleon's Shadow

“Life is pure farce from beginning to end, with a little
black comedy thrown in for shade. If it was anything
else, mankind would have stuck his collective head in
the gas oyen years ago. No one could tolerate seventy
years of tragedy. When I die - probably of cancer -
Jane has prornised to put on my tombstone: "Here
lies Anne Cattrell who laughed her way through it.
The joke was on her but at least she knew it." (The Ice House)”
― Minette Walters

“It was a slaughterhouse, the most horrific scene I have ever witnessed...”
― Minette Walters

“Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.’ Eric Hoffer”
― Minette Walters, The Cellar

“I bless God daily for the bonds of affection that have held us together and brought us through the pestilence. To be loved and honored for who we are, and not what our status represents, is surely the lesson He wanted us to learn when he sent His son to live as a carpenter and not as a king. The future will be bright indeed when even the humblest are given the chance to prove their worth.”
― Minette Walters

“It will be as if we never existed if our history cannot be read.”
― Minette Walters, The Last Hours

“I happen to think the relationship between the police and society is drifting out of balance. The police have forgotten that they are there only by invitation, while society has forgotten that because it chooses the laws which regulate it, it has a responsibility to uphold them. The relationship should be mutually supportive.”
― Minette Walters, The Scold's Bridle

“We all know it's safer to beat up on people who won't retaliate,' he told her, 'but it's a quick way to lose friends. You need to find ways of dealing with confrontation when it happens.”
― Minette Walters

“An Englishman's home may be his castle, but an Englishwoman's kitchen is where he eats his humble pie.”
― Minette Walters, The Scold's Bridle

“After being shown the demesne by Pikeman, and consulting with him at length, the elders had expressed their willingness to bring their fellows to live and work in Bourne on the same terms that My Lord had agreed with his own serfs. Hugh watched in disbelief as Bourne signed a writ, prepared by Thurkell, which not only granted them extra land but rights of access to education, medicine and a meal of meat every seven days. It was a world in disarray when base-born men, sworn to obedience through their oaths of fealty, could expect rewards in return for their labour.”
― Minette Walters, The Turn of Midnight

“Internalized pain is always a stronger motivator than security and contentment. Contented people take happiness for granted. Anguished people struggle to find it through self-expression.”
― Minette Walters, The Shape of Snakes

“coincidences are seductive”
― Minette Walters, Disordered Minds

“Psychologists, policemen, prison officers, judges, they were all out of the same mould. Men in authority with complete control of my life.”
― Minette Walters, The Sculptress

“After being shown the demesne by Pikeman, and consulting with him at length, the elders had expressed their willingness to bring their fellows to live and work in Bourne on the same terms that My Lord had agreed with his own serfs. Hugh watched in disbelief as Bourne signed a writ, prepared by Thurkell, which not only granted them extra land but rights of access to education, medicine and a meal of meat every seven days. It was a word in disarray when base-born men, sworn to obedience through their oaths of fealty, could expect rewards in return for their labour.
Pg 135”
― Minette Walters, The Turn of Midnight

“What is any man other than the sum of his parts? We are all a mass of contradictions. Pg457”
― Minette Walters, The Players

“She felt a surge of affection for the randy bastard--love, she thought, was the most stubborn of all the diseases.”
― Minette Walters, The Scold's Bridle

“Elias’s answer had been teasingly opaque. A good fire usually nullified most problems... Pg178”
― Minette Walters, The Players

“It took men of vision to recognise that tolerance was preferable to perpetual enmity. Pg262”
― Minette Walters, The Players

“Her worst terrors came during the night. She could believe in herself in daylight, but alone in the pitch-blackness of the cellar she doubted her very existence. However hard she strained to see the walls and the floor, even her hand before her face, there was only darkness. And the darkness was more alive than she was.”
― Minette Walters, The Cellar