Sue Grafton Quotes

I attended the University of Louisville my freshman year, transferred to what was then Western Kentucky State Teachers College for my sophomore and junior years, and then graduated from the University of Louisville in the summer of 1961.

Train yourself to listen to that small voice that tells us what's important and what's not.

God save us from the people who want to do what's best for us.

If your mind isn't open, keep your mouth shut too.

You can’t save others from themselves because those who make a perpetual muddle of their lives don’t appreciate your interfering with the drama they’ve created. They want your poor-sweet-baby sympathy, but they don’t want to change.

We all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that's where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we're busy denying.

Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.

If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them.

Kinsey was never a lawyer. She's strictly blue collar.

I was an English major in college with minors in Fine Arts and Humanities.

Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right - a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five. All those potential killers passing their plates.

I love being single. It's almost like being rich.

I write letters to my right brain all the time. They're just little notes. And right brain, who likes to get little notes from me, will often come through within a day or two.

I've never known anyone yet who doesn't suffer a certain restlessness when autumn rolls around... We're all eight years old again and anything is possible.

When all else fails, cleaning house is the perfect antidote to most of life's ills.

A woman should never, never, never be financially dependent to anyone, especially a man, because the minute you were dependent, you could be abused.

The hard thing about death is that nothing ever changes. The hard thing about life is that nothing stays the same.

I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first.

No one with a happy childhood ever amounts to much in this world. They are so well adjusted, they never are driven to achieve anything.

People talk about dysfunctional families; I've never seen any other kind.

People who've had happy childhoods are wonderful, but they're bland... An unhappy childhood compels you to use your imagination to create a world in which you can be happy. Use your old grief. That's the gift you're given.

I hate nature. I really do. Nature is composed entirely of sticks, dirt, fall-down places, biting and stinging things, and savageries too numerous to list. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Man has been building cities since the year oughty-ought, just to get away from this stuff.

Pretending to be 'normal' is a lot harder than you think.

People in California seem to age at a different rate than the rest of the country. Maybe it's the passion for diet and exercise, maybe the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Or maybe we're afflicted with such a horror of aging that we've halted the process psychically.

All of us are subjected to somebody else's power at some point. So once in a while you kiss ass. So what? Either you make your peace with that early, or you end up living your life as a crank and a misfit.

The struggle is what teaches you.

My job as the writer is to fool you. Your job as the reader is to see if you can catch me at it.

Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there.

In my opinion, there's no condition in life that can't be ameliorated by a dose of junk food.

There are days when none of us can bear it, but the good comes around again. Happiness is seasonal, like anything else. Wait it out. There are people who love you. People who can help.

Happiness is seasonal, like anything else

I think you'd best make your peace with the past since you've come this far. I think you know by now that you won't go back again.

Pay enough for anything and it passes for taste.

The critical lessons in life hold sway whether you like it or not.

My primary lesson, however, was that I'm a solo writer, happiest when I'm making all the executive decisions. I've always been willing to rise or fall on my own merits.

Dream big but think small.

Writing is self-taught. Consulting other people only teaches you to depend on their reactions, which may or may not be legitimate. Quit looking for approval ... Learn to evaluate your own work with a dispassionate eye ... the lessons you acquire will be all the more valuable because you've mastered your craft from within.

Pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. Nobody seems to get that.

If you're unhappy, change something.

Writing is a process and you must trust the process! Fear and anxiety are part of that process along with the enthusaism and the good days and the joy and the passion and the great hopes you have for a book. But when you run into problems, when you get stuck or scared, you must trust that that is part of how a book comes to pass, and what you need to do is get very still and quiet because Self will tell you how to get out of a hole you've dug for yourself.

I spent the first twenty years of my writing career preparing for the mystery genre, which is my favorite literary form.

The character of Rosie is based on a woman who used to live in the same apartment building I lived in many years ago. She's taken on a life of her own, of course.

Society values cooperation over independence, obedience over individuality, and niceness above all else.

The memory is like orbiting twin stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed.

Ghosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them." "I don't believe in ghosts," I said, faintly. "Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there," she replied.

He might be a man without character, but she was a woman without courage. Of the two, which was worse?

I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I've learned to trust my own instincts and I've also learned to take risks.

After my years in Hollywood, I got tired of apologizing for work that really wasn't mine to begin with.

You never know which people will affect your life.

There's a certain class of people who will do you in and then remain completely mystified by the depth of your pain.