Laura Lippman Quotes

There was nothing more dangerous than people convinced of their own good intentions.

Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being.

I'm a morning person, which is a hideous thing to be. No one likes morning people, not even other morning people.

Anyone can love a perfect place. Loving Baltimore takes some resilience.

stinginess seemed instinctive to him. Darwinian even. He hadn't gotten to his current size by sharing.

I think I'm part of a generation of crime writers all of whom woke up independently and recoiled with horror at the fact that we'd chosen this very conservative genre.

There's always time to read. Don't trust a writer who doesn't read. It's like eating food prepared by a cook who doesn't eat.

Children can be happy when their parents are miserable. But a parent is never happier than her unhappiest child.

Whatever you want, at any moment, someone else is getting it. Whatever you have, someone else is longing for.

it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.

I begin each book with a challenge to myself.

I like to see writers reach bigger and bigger audiences, and stand-alones have allowed some of them to do just that.

Reporting is pretty vital to me. It keeps me connected to the world. A 40-hour-per-week day job may be less feasible as time goes on.

My family is really, really Southern - I had two uncle Bubbas, and grandparents that we called Big Mama and Big Daddy.

There are, of course, an infinite number of places where one is not, yet only one place where one actually is.

In fact, I think every book I've written has been inspired by a real event.

I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim. I like musicales in general. They make surprisingly great running tapes.

I'm for anything that lets writers stretch, in or out of their series.

It's very different to have this kid that I'm truly responsible for.

I've gotten to do a lot of stuff, traveled, worked hard at my career.

I'm at the age most people are sending their kids off to college.

how magnanimous was a gesture if one were constantly aware of its magnanimity?

Going to college don't make you from somewhere, any more than a cat born in an over can call itself a biscuit.

Being a mother was like being trapped in the first fifteen minutes of a horror film. Everything was fine, lovely. But there was this persistent sense of dread.

It was as if his fingers knew things, but they couldn't show him unless they were moving, touching. He had to think it was similar for carpenters and writers, and he knew it was the same for chefs.