The Sentence Is Death Quotes
"I find the stress almost unbearable. When Stuart said he had to be done by twelve o’clock, he meant twelve o’clock on the dot."
"The police should have blocked off the traffic. We had our own people at each end of the street, keeping back pedestrians."
"If you’ve read The Word is Murder, you’ll know that Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne was first introduced to me as a consultant on a television series I was writing: Injustice."
"A three-book contract represents stability. It means that you can plan your time, knowing exactly what you’re going to be doing."
"In the back of my mind, I had been hoping that the investigating officer would be DI Meadows."
"He was a detective I’d met when Diana Cowper was murdered and later on the two of us had even had a drink at my club."
"He was dark and solitary, refusing to tell me anything about himself even though I was supposed to be his biographer."
"If I was going to write a second book about Hawthorne, it would need to run to at least eighty thousand words."
"You cannot have a central character who is simply, by his very nature, unpleasant."
"I make up stories; I prefer not to follow them around town."
"I’m sure there are plenty of people who think I’m just rude."
"He made his living from the death of love and from the unmaking of people’s dreams."
"If you’ve ever read the French philosopher Alain Badiou, you’ll know that he defines jokes as a type of rupture that opens up truths."
"I look on my divorce as a cleansing process. The water runs foul only when you step into the shower."
"I had no inner life in myself, no confidence."
"I never knew where I was with him, in every sense."
"I did think it was strange. The atmosphere at book festivals is nearly always friendly and non-competitive."
"I’m sure it would have been a barrel of laughs."
"I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Greg."
"Let me explain to you, Mr Hawthorne. I’ll tell it to you my way."
"You can smoke all you like. But not in my house."
"We weren’t rich, but you don’t need money in a place like this."
"Ed was going to kill him. It was as simple as that."
"I’m not talking in front of him. He is a commercial writer. He has no business here."
"I don’t need you to fucking like me. I just need you to write the fucking book."
"Are you accusing a police officer of planting evidence?"
"You’ve let the bookshop down. You’ve let your readers down. You’ve let yourself down."
"Do all policemen swear? Hawthorne, Grunshaw and now Lofty all had an issue with the English language that bordered on Tourette’s."
"She was the most annoying person I ever met. She’d have tried the patience of a Shinto saint – and probably did, for all I know."
"It’s not like you’re in Paris and you write how you’ve seen this big, tall building made of metal but you forget to mention that it might be worth a visit."
"It might tell me if she was prepared to lie to protect you. Or the other way round."
"I’m not even sure anyone respects Detective Inspector Cara Grunshaw."
"She spoke as if she was in a hurry, the words falling over each other in their enthusiasm to leave her mouth."
"That’s my business, Hawthorne. It’s what I do."
"Truth is what it’s all about. She is the main character in my life."
"I hadn’t wanted her to know but I never tell her lies. She can see right through me."
"It feels odd to be writing about her and the truth is she has made it clear that she’s uncomfortable being a character in my book."
"How could I even call myself an author if I had no connection to the last chapter – the whole point of the book?"
"I fired up my computer and went on the internet. What a wonderful device … a gift to writers and detectives alike!"
"That moment when the detective works it out and the truth makes itself known."
"She’s made so many mistakes in her career that after this little mishap they may even boot her out."
"He already knew he wasn’t going to see Dave again. He had decided on his plan."
"I remember what was happening in the kitchen when we were there? She was smoking. There were plates in the sink."
"I trust you, mate. You’ll think of a better one."