Patricia Cornwell
First of all, it does not deter crime, the death penalty.Collection: Death
Survival was my only hope, success my only revenge.Collection: Hope
I believe the root of all evil is abuse of power.Collection: Power
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.Collection: Morning
I didn't invent forensic science and medicine. I just was one of the first people to recognize how interesting it is.
The greatest gift is our own eyes, sense of smell, and abilities to deduce.
I won't put myself in a position where I'm vulnerable.
If everybody, every day, would try to do one thing that pulls them beyond themselves the world will start being a better place.
Everyone is doing forensics.
I am an Armani and a Dolce & Gabbana kind of a person.
Being with someone who is smart and gives good advice adds tremendously wonderful elements to your life.
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.
Night fell clean and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air.
Even if you are a best-seller you feel insecure because it is all so unpredictable.
I'm always surprised when large numbers of people buy my books.
I wouldn't want to donate my body for scientific study.
I find it difficult to attend autopsies. Especially the smells.
I've always believed human blood is red because it really needs to draw attention to itself.
I've never taken a scalpel to a dead body.
I dropped chemistry. I practically blew up the lab in college.
The biggest risk with a series that goes on this long is that you'll get bored with the character.
In the first person, the readers feel smart, like it's them solving the case.
But when I was a little kid, I was always writing stories and illustrating little books that I would create.
That's why I think the 'Scarpetta' series has worked so well because people like spending time with this character.
I'm very, very sensitive to pain and to people who suffer.
My friends call me Miss Worst Case Scenario.
I've had people turn up to book signings with knives, with guns.
I've been stalked.
Obviously people read the books in order to be entertained.
If you chomp down too hard on my work, you're going to break your teeth.
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.
I don't do things that are illegal.
In my forties, my optimism was boundless. I had really good health and tremendous success which allowed me to do anything I wanted.
I refuse to sit on my laurels.
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.
The human capacity to be curious has always existed.
With DNA, the ability to find out a lot more with a lot less has increased our ability for identification.
I constantly remind people that crime isn't solved by technology; it's solved by people.
I am a fan of Botox.
I like crazy shoes or unusual cowboy boots and I collect big belt buckles.
I stop working at about 3 p.m. on Fridays.
Even when I am writing I usually take a break around lunchtime and go for a little walk to clear out my head.
If it's really beautiful weather, sometimes I might take a helicopter out. I got my license in 1999.
I like to get to bed with a clear head.
Life brings with it strangeness and surprises and upsetsCollection: Upset
Do no harm & leave the world a better place than you found it.Collection: World
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.Collection: College
We create our own worlds. We destroy our own worlds. It is that simple.Collection: Simple
Thoughts are odd misfires.Collection: Odd