Patricia Cornwell Quotes

I didn't invent forensic science and medicine. I just was one of the first people to recognize how interesting it is.

I constantly remind people that crime isn't solved by technology; it's solved by people.

I believe the root of all evil is abuse of power.

Everyone is doing forensics.

If everybody, every day, would try to do one thing that pulls them beyond themselves the world will start being a better place.

Night fell clean and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air.

Do no harm & leave the world a better place than you found it.

When I was at college there were two things I vowed I'd never do. One was go to a funeral and the other was deal with computers. And then I ended up being a computer programmer in a morgue.

With DNA, the ability to find out a lot more with a lot less has increased our ability for identification.

On the last morning of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War, I built a fire and sat facing a window of darkness where at sunrise I knew I would find the sea.

Being with someone who is smart and gives good advice adds tremendously wonderful elements to your life.

Leaves covered pavement like soggy cereal.

Even when I am writing I usually take a break around lunchtime and go for a little walk to clear out my head.

I stop working at about 3 p.m. on Fridays.

I'm always surprised when large numbers of people buy my books.

My fans want me to talk to them. And even if they want to be critical, I want to hear what they've got to say.

I've never taken a scalpel to a dead body.

We create our own worlds. We destroy our own worlds. It is that simple.

Being gay is just one aspect of my very complicated life. I do not wear it on my sleeve.

To almost die is to know that one day you will, and to never again feel the same about anything.

In my forties, my optimism was boundless. I had really good health and tremendous success which allowed me to do anything I wanted.

First of all, it does not deter crime, the death penalty.

You can't cure a chipped plate. All you can do is live with it or throw it out.

I refuse to sit on my laurels.

Survival my only hope. Success my only revenge

My friends call me Miss Worst Case Scenario.

Life brings with it strangeness and surprises and upsets

America is the most violent democracy in the world. It's something that's met with great shock, horror, and mystery when I travel to other countries. They ask, Why are there so many shootings in America? Why does everyone own a gun?

Thoughts are odd misfires.

rain slowly slides down the glass as if the night is crying.

And suddenly the world was filled with wooden faces and flat voices - and, you were alone.

I like to get to bed with a clear head.

I don't do things that are illegal.

The dead have never bothered me. It's the living that I fear.

Has all the trappings of a mystery novel, doesn't it?

I dropped chemistry. I practically blew up the lab in college.

I am an Armani and a Dolce & Gabbana kind of a person.

I'm very, very sensitive to pain and to people who suffer.

The biggest risk with a series that goes on this long is that you'll get bored with the character.

You have to live where you wake up, even if someone else dreamed you there.

Murder is about power and the more powerful women get the more it will change the good that they do and the bad that they do.

Botox not only helps with wrinkles, it actually makes you feel more relaxed as frowning causes tension.

I won't put myself in a position where I'm vulnerable.

When I was in second grade, my mother moved from Miami to this evangelical conservative environment in western North Carolina, two miles down the road from Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth.

He was pushing fifty, with a face life had chewed on, and long wisps of graying hair parted low on one side and combed over his balding pate.

I like crazy shoes or unusual cowboy boots and I collect big belt buckles.

I've always believed human blood is red because it really needs to draw attention to itself.

I find it difficult to attend autopsies. Especially the smells.

I wouldn't want to donate my body for scientific study.

Even if you are a best-seller you feel insecure because it is all so unpredictable.