Helen Riley > Helen's Quotes

“When she bought the cats her mother asked her straight out if they were 'baby substitutes'. 'No,' Ruth had answered, straight-faced. 'They're kittens. If I had a baby it would be a cat substitute.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Crossing Places

“Maybe humans need animals to help them understand the world. Certainly it’s hard to see what else cats do for humans, aside from looking cute and killing the odd mouse.”
― Elly Griffiths, A Dying Fall

“Grey’s OK on a man,’ says Mary-Anne. ‘Silver fox and all that.’ Ruth notices that Frank doesn’t seem to mind this description. She also muses that there isn’t a female equivalent to ‘silver fox’. ‘Grey-haired old bat’ doesn’t cover it somehow.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Outcast Dead

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“You need a break, a complete rest, recharge your batteries.' Recharge your batteries. What the hell does that mean? Nelson prides himself on not needing batteries. He's an old-fashioned, wind-up model.”
― Elly Griffiths, A Dying Fall

“I know you've all got it in for me," says Bob. "You fitted me up for one crime, why not pin every child murder in the last twenty years on me?" His voice rises hysterically.

"That seems rather an extreme reaction," says Tim. "I just asked what you were doing yesterday afternoon.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Outcast Dead

“Nelson nods again. ‘It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. The worst, the very worst. When you have children, suddenly the world seems such a terrifying place. Every stick and stone, every car, every animal, Christ, every person, is suddenly a terrible threat. You realise you’d do anything, anything, to keep them safe: steal, lie, kill, you name it. But sometimes there just isn’t anything you can do. And that’s the hardest thing.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Crossing Places

“Why are Georgette Heyer's covers so naff? When you think of all the exciting things that happen - abductions, false identities, wild horseback chases - the front of the book nearly always shows a woman in a ballgown, simpering sweetly up at a man.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“There's a pleasure being mad that only the madman knows.”
― Elly Griffiths, The House at Sea's End

“Does the world really need another long essay on environmental archaeology and freshwater mollusks? Well, it's going to get one, whether it likes it or not.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Chalk Pit

“Ruth isn’t going to be bossed about by a woman in tight trousers who thinks she’s Helen Mirren playing Jane Tennison. She”
― Elly Griffiths, The Chalk Pit

“Kate is now walking. She started at ten months, which is early according to the books. And while Ruth was proud of her daughter for reaching this milestone ahead of time (walking at ten months = first class honours degree from Cambridge), she can’t help thinking that it was easier when she could carry her everywhere.”
― Elly Griffiths, A Room Full of Bones

“She doesn’t place the rights of animals above those of humans but she does, undoubtedly, prefer her cats to many humans.”
― Elly Griffiths, A Room Full of Bones

“To lose your child, to have her spirited away like something from a fairy tale, surely that must be every mother’s nightmare.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Crossing Places

“This is one of the worst things about being a working mother. Oh, the work’s all right. You can make arrangements for the work. It’s all the other stuff. The drinks after work, the leaving dos, the Friday nights when someone suggests a curry. All the times, in fact, when the important bonding gets done. Ruth has to miss all that, and she’s lost count of the times when she’s been the last to hear about a dig because ‘we discussed it last night in the pub.’ Phil is a great one for networking, he’s always skulking off with a few cronies to plot over pasta but, then again, Phil is only a working father. Having children doesn’t seem to impinge on his professional life at all.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Outcast Dead

“Flint jumps onto the table and arranges himself, with geometrical precision, on the exact article that Ruth is reading.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Outcast Dead