P. D. James Quotes

Anger, and the self-righteousness that is both the cause and consequence of anger, tends to be easier on the psyche than personal responsibility.

I've never been seriously involved with anyone. I've certainly never been in love. I've always preferred to keep things casual.

I'm constantly running away from everything. I'm running away from things on a daily basis. I run away from relationships. I run away from responsibilities.

Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I'd spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit.

Somehow, married or single, we'd rather anesthetize ourselves with love substitutes than go for the real thing, because let's face it: The real thing is pretty scary.

Madness is the emergency exit. You can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. Forever.

I think I’ve developed this pattern of running away when it comes time to fall in love and stay in a relationship.

duty, the most indecent of all obsessions, was only another name for love.

Let this be your wall of brass, to have nothing on your conscience, no guilt to make you turn pale.

For with my intuition I knew that this man was repeating a pattern over and over again: courting a woman with his intelligence and sympathy, claiming her emotionally; then, when she began to claim in return, running away. And the better a woman was, the sooner he would begin to run. I knew this with my intuition, and yet I sat there in my dark room, looking at the hazed wet brilliance of the purple London night sky, longing with my whole being.

We're in this together, right?" he whispers. "You and me? You want to be here, yeah?" There's guilt in his questions. "Yes," I reply. "I chose this." Day pulls me close enough for our noses to touch. "I love you.

Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt.

A clear conscience is generally the result of a faulty memory, not a faulty life.

The anoretic operates under the astounding illusion that she can escape the flesh, and, by association, the realm of emotions.

Genuine love is volitional rather than emotional. The person who truely loves does so because of a decision to love. This person has made a commitment to be loving whether or not the loving feeling is present. ...Conversely, it is not only possible but necessary for a loving person to avoid acting on feelings of love.

I am what I am,' Salander said 'I ran away from everything and everybody. I should have said goodbye.

Nothing is more common than for persons to hate those whom they have injured.

Fretting about overpopulation, is a perfect guilt-free - indeed, sanctimonious - way for "progressives" to be racists.

A man marries one woman to escape from many others, and then chases many others to forget he's married to one.

Guilt is only another way of avoiding informed action.

Not even for an hour can you bear to be alone, nor can you advantageously apply your leisure time, but you endeavor, a fugitive and wanderer, to escape from yourself, now vainly seeking to banish remorse by wine, and now by sleep; but the gloomy companion presses on you, and pursues you as you fly.

Once I step on the field, by the things I do in practice and the way I practice, you can't tell that I don't love the game. But I just know it deep down.

If you can learn to be incredibly passionate about your work without fighting for it just because it's yours, that's a huge thing.

I've committed to nothing...and that's just suicide...by tiny, tiny increments.

Had I not sinned what would there be for you to pardon. My fate has given you the opportunity for mercy.