Barbara Mertz
I am so tired of ruggedly handsome heroes. I don't know too many ruggedly handsome people who are necessarily nice people. In fact, the beautiful people have a big handicap because they rely too much on their appearance and don't bother to become interesting.
I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to - mostly the latter.
I can do a book in three months if I spend all day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.
I've been reading ghost stories ever since I could read. I'm immensely curious about ghosts and UFOs and all that stuff, but I'm a very hard-headed person.
I do, however, think it would be difficult to write books I don't like to read.
Getting an idea for a book is not the problem, but you need 300 ideas - an idea a page.
Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn't planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I'm not recommending it as a way to write. It's very sloppy, but it works for me.
Peculiar or not, it is my idea of pleasure. Why, why else do you lead this life you don't enjoy it? Don't talk of duty to me; you men always have some high-sounding excuse for indulging yourselves. You go gallivanting over the earth, climbing mountains, looking for the sources of the Nile; and expect women to sit dully at home embroidering. I embroider very badly. I think I would excavate rather well.Collection: Home
To argue without knowledge is like trying to weave without thread.Collection: Trying
That's maturity-when you realize that you've finally arrived at a state of ignorance as profound as your parents.Collection: Ignorance
Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.Collection: Prejudice
People who relate what they believe to be new and startling information like to have such information received with exclamations of astonishment and admiration.Collection: Believe
Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice.Collection: Fire
Who are we really? Combinations of common chemicals that perform mechanical actions for a few years before crumbling back into the original components? Fresh new souls, drawn at random for some celestial cupboard where God keeps an unending supply?Or the same soul, immortal and eternal, refurbished and reused through endless lives, by that thrifty Housekeeper? In Her wisdom and benevolence She wipes off the memory slates, as part of the cleaning process, because if we could remember all the things we have experienced in earlier lives, we might object to risking it again.Collection: Memories
there is nothing like a garden to rest the soul.Collection: Garden
The only way to do it is to do it: by writing, writing, writing.Collection: Writing
Conventional history completely ignores half the human race.Collection: Race
Martyrdom is often the result of excessive gullibility.Collection: Sacrifice
Now, Mama, Papa, and sir," said Ramses, "please withdraw to the farthest corner and crouch down with your backs turned. It is as I feared; we will never break through by this method. The walls are eight feet thick. Fortunately I brought along a little nitroglycerin--" "Oh, good Gad," shrieked Inspector Cuff.Collection: Wall
Money was the manure of politics.Collection: Politics
I never meant to marry. In my opinion, a woman born in the last half of the nineteenth century of the Christian era suffered from enough disadvantages without willfully embracing another.Collection: Christian
The approval of a cat cannot but flatter the recipient.Collection: Cat
It's not unsporting to thrash a cowardly cad,' said Simmons. 'Everyone knows you don't fight like a gentleman.' 'That might be called an oxymoron,' Ramses said. 'Oh--sorry. Bad form to use long words. Look it up when you get home.' The poor devil didn't know how to fight, like a gentleman or otherwise.Collection: Sorry
Emerson,' I said, choosing my words with care, 'it is a sheer drop from the cleft down to the base of the cliff. If you are bent on breaking your arm or your leg or your neck or all three, find a place closer to home so we won't have to carry you such a distance.Collection: Distance
No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.Collection: Funny
The combination of physical strength and moral sincerity combined with tenderness of heart is exactly what is wanted in a husband.--Ameila PeabodyCollection: Husband
Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.Collection: Political
A fondness for martyrdom, especially of the verbal variety, is common to the young.Collection: Common
When emotion supersedes reason ... gullibility must follow.Collection: Emotion
It was hate at first sight, clean, pure and strong as grain alcohol.Collection: Strong
Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical pointCollection: Lying
Writing is like a bird-watcher watching for birds: the stories are there: you just have to train yourself to look for them.Collection: Writing
Nothing looks as self-satisfied as a contented cat.Collection: Cat
Cats always pick the laps of the people who don't like them.Collection: Cat
Loving someone condemns you to a lifetime of fear. You become painfully conscious of how fragile people are - bundles of brittle bones and vulnerable flesh, breeding grounds for billions of deadly germs and horrible diseases.Collection: People
Children, I feel, are as much entitled to privacy as human beings.Collection: Children
Husbands do not care to be contradicted. Indeed, I do not know anyone who does.Collection: Husband
There is nothing sadder than the cheerful letters of the dead, expressing hopes that were never fulfilled, ambitions that were never achieved, dreams cut off before they could come to fruition.Collection: Dream
stereotypes are awfully misleading. There are typical librarians, but not all librarians are typical.Collection: Typical
It may take us a little longer to reach the summit, but never fear, we will get there!Collection: Determination
Exaggeration is the cheapest form of humor.Collection: Humor
His masculinity was only too apparentCollection: Masculinity
A man asking for help ought to at least give directions.Collection: Men
It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance?Collection: Disappointment
I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle.... Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! (Amelia Peabody)Collection: Husband
Since I am not as stupid as my children believe I am, I had immediately realized this might be a ruse, but I was not at all averse to a confrontation. In fact, I had been hoping for some such thing.Collection: Children
...Nefret said with a gusty sigh, 'Well, that's done it. We may as well join in, Ramses, family arguments are the favorite form of amusement here and this looks like being a loud one.Collection: Looks
There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.Collection: Mother
The only people who are not in awe of Emerson's powerful voice and well-nigh superhuman strength are the members of his own family. He is aware of this, and often complains about it; so from time to time I like to put on a little show of being intimidated. 'Proceed, my dear,' I said apologetically.Collection: Powerful
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family." "Very boring, Emerson.Collection: Ordinary