P. D. James Quotes (26 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Paris Review (1995), as cited in The Oxford Treasury of Sayings and Quotations (2011), ed. Susan Ratcliffe, Oxford University Press, p. 250 : ISBN 0199609128
Other

War

“If from infancy you treat children as gods they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

Source: The Children of Men (1992), Chapter 1.

God , Children , Adulthood

“I don't think God bargains.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

God , Thinking

“I don't see why escapist literature should not also be a work of art.”

P. D. James

Time to be Earnest - a Fragment of Biography

Art , Literature

“Use some reverence. Remember what he was only a minute ago. You wouldn't have dared laid a hand on him.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

Dr. Theodore Faron About Xan.
The Children of Men (1992)

“I knew that what I had felt was envy or regret, not for something lost but for something never achieved.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

Envy

“Oh yes he does. I may not be religious but I know my Bible. My mother saw to that. He bargains all right. But He's supposed to be just. If he wants belief He'd better provide some evidence.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

“When my turn comes I propose to take my lethal capsule comfortably in bed at home and preferably on my own.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

Home

“I'm not a tyrant, but I can't afford to be merciful. Whatever it is necessary to do, I will do it.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

“I didn't love him, but I liked him being in love with me.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

Love

“Darling, you can't promise that…but I like to hear you say it.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

“Perhaps His experiment went spectacularly wrong, sir. Perhaps He's just baffled. Seeing the mess, not knowing how to put it right. Perhaps not wanting to put it right. Perhaps He only had enough power left for one final intervention. So He made it. Whoever He is, whatever He is, I hope he burns in His own Hell.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

A driver upon being asked if he believed in God.
The Children of Men (1992)

Hope , Hell

“The intention of any novelist must surely be to make that straight avenue to the human heart.”

P. D. James

Time to be Earnest - a Fragment of Biography

Heart

“I don’t think writers choose the genre, the genre chooses us. I wrote out of the wish to create order out of disorder, the liking of a pattern.”

P. D. James

Interview with Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph, 26 Sep 2009 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6227400/PD-James-Queen-of-Detective-Fiction-Interview.html.
Other

Thinking

“We do. The question is, how do you?”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)

Question

“We all die alone. We shall endure death as once we enjoyed birth. You can't share either experience.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

Woolvington.
The Children of Men (1992)

Death , Birth

“I don't want to kill you.”

P. D. James book The Children of Men

The Children of Men (1992)