I'd imagine "murderess" trumps "wife" when defining a close relationship.

There are always loose ends in real life.

How could the death of someone you had never met affect you so?

The dead could only speak through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left scattered behind them.

The whole world's writing novels, but nobody's reading them.

He wondered fleetingly how many people who sat alone for hours as they scribbled their stories practiced talking about their work during their coffee breaks....

the walking stick, like a burqa, conferred protective status...

Couples tended to be of roughly equivalent personal attractiveness, though of course factors such as money often seemed to secure a partner of significantly better looks than oneself.

The whole world's writing novels, but nobody's reading them. We need readers. More readers. Fewer writers.

She wuz depressed. Yeah, she wuz on stuff for it. Like me. Sometimes it jus' takes you over. It's an illness, " she said, although she made the words sound like "it's uh nill

Hers was the kind of family that commissioned painters to immortalize its young: a background utterly alien to Strike, and one he had come to know like a dangerous foreign country.

Flee flattery, false praise and fair weather friends

I don't think that good politics ever excuse a bad song.

Except a man be born again, he will wish one day he had never been born at all.

I'm a much better filmmaker than painter. But studying it did make me visually acute and taught me lessons like being economic: Say something once and you don't have to say it again.

There can only be a relationship between human beings when we accept what is, not what should be.

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.

I do not use profanity in my novels. My characters all go to church.

I wish for many reasons flying had never been invented.

Take "no" as an encouragement to redouble his efforts, so it was easier to say "yes" right away.