Sue Grafton

Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.

Pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. Nobody seems to get that.

Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there.

Books are like movies of the mind and it's better to leave Kinsey where she is.

I'm not sure Kinsey has changed in these first twelve books. I think the reader learns more about her, but from Kinsey's perspective, only three years have passed while the rest of us have been getting older at a much faster clip.

I don't want to write formula. I don't want to crank these books out like sausages. Every book is different, which takes a hell of a lot of ingenuity on my part.

I spent the first twenty years of my writing career preparing for the mystery genre, which is my favorite literary form.

Kinsey was never a lawyer. She's strictly blue collar.

I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I've learned to trust my own instincts and I've also learned to take risks.

Everything happens for a reason but that doesnt mean theres a point.

It is a truth of human nature that we can ponder life's mysteries for only so long before we lose interest and move on to something else.

I've never written about my husband, Steve, or any of my children because I know them all too well. I see them in all their complexities which makes them impossible to render on the printed page.

Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.

We all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that's where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we're busy denying.

I started writing seriously when I was 18, wrote my first novel when I was 22, and I've never stopped writing since.

In my opinion, there's no condition in life that can't be ameliorated by a dose of junk food.

When all else fails cleaning house is the perfect antidote to most of lifes ills.

The truth is, I could no more dictate her nature than she could dictate mine. Kinsey's happy as she is and she doesn't need to be rescued, improved, or saved.

The character of Rosie is based on a woman who used to live in the same apartment building I lived in many years ago. She's taken on a life of her own, of course.

I love being single. It's almost like being rich.

Of the first seven novels I wrote, numbers four and five were published. Numbers one, two, three, six, and seven, have never seen the light of day... and rightly so.

Ideas are easy. Its the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.

You try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.

I was an English major in college with minors in Fine Arts and Humanities.

Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see many people doing it.

Henry is entirely invented though by now I feel he's as real as anyone I know.

At that point, I sat down and made an alphabetical list of all the crime related words I could think of. So here I am now, nearly half-way through, probably tied up until the year 2015 or SO.

Ive never known anyone yet who doesnt suffer a certain restlessness when autumn rolls around... Were all eight years old again and anything is possible.

I attended the University of Louisville my freshman year, transferred to what was then Western Kentucky State Teachers College for my sophomore and junior years, and then graduated from the University of Louisville in the summer of 1961.

My primary lesson, however, was that I'm a solo writer, happiest when I'm making all the executive decisions. I've always been willing to rise or fall on my own merits.

After my years in Hollywood, I got tired of apologizing for work that really wasn't mine to begin with.

I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first.

Poise and indifference so often look the same.

If high heels were so wonderful men would be wearing them.

If high heels were so wonderful, men would be wearing them.