Agatha Christie citations

Page 6

“Les affaires - les affaires"-M. Bauc”

“Evil never goes unpunished, Monsieur. But the punishment is sometimes secret.”

“I congratulate you on having such a unique and beautiful problem.”

“If you've lost, you've lost.”

“You arouse my gastronomical juices, madame.”

“Who is there who has not felt a sudden startled pang at reliving an old experience or feeling an old emotion?”

“It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.”

“If one approaches a problem with order and method there should be no difficulty in solving it — none whatever,’ said Pirot severely.”

“Work, Mr. Burton. There’s nothing like work, for men and women. The one unforgivable sin is idleness.”

“We shall not hunt together again, my friend. Our first hunt was here — and our last … They were good days, Yes, they have been good days…”

“Plymouth, Gwenda thought, as she moved forward obediently in the queu for Passports and Customs, was probably not the best of England.”

“I have a certain experience of the way people tell lies.”

“The English are very stupid,” said Poirot. “They think that they can deceive anyone but that no one can deceive them.”

“A dog,” said Mr. Baldock, in his lecture-room style, which was capable of rousing almost anybody to violent irritation, “has an extraordinary power of bolstering up the human ego.”

“It all came together then, you see — all the various isolated bits — and made a coherent pattern.”

“I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest.”

“Freckles are so earnest and Scottish.”

“But to succeed in life every detail should be arranged well beforehand.”

“The character of the victim has always something to do with his or her murder.”

“Yes, he is intelligent. But we must be more intelligent. We must be so intelligent that he does not suspect us of being intelligent at all.”

“Poirot twinkled at her gently.”

“She broke off, unable to find words to frame her struggling thoughts. What life would be with Hori, she did not know. In spite of his gentleness, in spite of his love for her, he would remain in some respects incalculable and incomprehensible. They would share moments of great beauty and richness together - but what of their common daily life?”

“God bless my soul, woman, the more personal you are the better! This is a story of human beings — not dummies! Be personal — be prejudiced — be catty — be anything you please! Write the thing your own way. We can always prune out the bits that are libellous afterwards!”

“Quite absurd, because Caleb has absolutely no taste for fornication. He never has had. So lucky, being a clergyman.”

“I am not very clever about Americanisms — and I understand they change very quickly.”

“Perhaps a little of Trollope, but not to drown in him.”

“It was the technique of a man who selected thoughts as one might select pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. In due course they would be reassembled together so as to make a clear and coherent picture. At the moment the important thing was the selection, the separation.”

“You have an excellent heart, my friend — but your grey cells are in a deplorable condition.”

“Handsome, strong, gay … She felt again the thro and lilt of her blood. She had loved Kameni in that moment. She loved him now. Kameni could take the place that Khay had held in her life. She thought: "We shall be happy together - yes, we shall be happy. We shall live together and take pleasure in each other and we shall have strong, handsome children. There will be busy days full of work … and days of pleasure when we sail on the River…Life will be again as I knew it with Khay…What could I ask more than that? What do I want more than that?"”

“Men are made fools by the gleaming limbs of women, and, lo, in a minute they are become discolored carnelians. A trifle, a little, the likeness of a dream. And death comes as the end.”