Ruth Rendell Quotes

I have a wonderful respect for old people.

Sure, I'm for helping the elderly. I'm going to be old myself someday.

I got a gerontology certificate a million years ago along with my law degree, so I've been interested in older people for many years. Some people grow up with a lot of kids around, but I just grew up with a lot of old people.

For me, anyone who is over 80, I generally sit down and have a chat to because he is over 80, and he is going OK.

I'm too young for Medicare and too old for broads to care.

I'm too young for Medicare and too old for women to care.

I can't think of anyone who has done anything remotely useful after the age of 80.

Never ask anyone over 70 how they feel. They'll tell you.

Old age is an insult. It's like being smacked.

I thought it must be desperate to be old. To wake up in the morning and remember that you were ancient - and so behave that way. I thought old people were full of aches and pains and horrible illnesses.

There is a sort of indifference to the problem of old age. Indifference in the face of a revolution in longevity.

To be 64 is appalling, so what does it matter being 65?

I have a great affinity for senior citizens.

I don't give a damn what anybody says. I don't think at 70 and 75 that you can be as productive and efficient as you were when you were 40 or 50.

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed.

I'm not young. What's wrong with that?

We treat old people so badly. There is nothing easy about 80.

To be old is to be part of a huge and ordinary multitude... the reason why old age was venerated in the past was because it was extraordinary.

This year, when I turn 65, I thought, 'So weird;' when I was a kid, people who were 65 either retired or died. I'm so nowhere near that.

Old age is a woman's hell.

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

Turning 50 can be difficult, sometimes dangerous, for women. The danger is in that blip that can come from the fact that you become invisible, and if you're not careful and don't embrace that, it can trip you up and you lose confidence.

Never ask anyone over 70 how they feel. They'll tell you.

There's one more terrifying fact about old people: I'm going to be one soon.

Being seventy is not a sin.