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Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

P. D. James

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P. D. James
Age: 94 †
Born: 1920
Born: August 3
Died: 2014
Died: November 27
Member Of The House Of Lords
Novelist
Politician
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Phyllis Dorothy James
Phyllis Dorothy James
Baroness James of Holland Park
Phyllis James
Baroness Phyllis Dorothy James
Read
Writing
Contagious
Widely
Discrimination

More quotes by P. D. James

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The tragedy of loss is not that we grieve, but that we cease to grieve, and then perhaps the dead are dead at last.
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Murder is the unique crime, the only one for which we can never make reparation to the victim.
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There are two options for any society: total prohibition as in a totalitarian state, or total license. Both avoid the ardours of decision. Both have the attraction of certainty. The difficult option is to decide where the line should be drawn and this, surely, is the responsiblity of any civilized and democratic country.
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The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.
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Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more ­effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.
P. D. James
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Creativity doesn't flourish in an atmosphere of despotism, coercion and fear.
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read widely, not in order to copy someone else's style, but to learn to appreciate and recognize good writing and to see how the best writers have achieved their result. Poor writing is, unfortunately, infectious and should be avoided.
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What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
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Time didn't heal, but it anesthetized. The human mind could only feel so much.
P. D. James
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however long we have to live, there are never enough springs.
P. D. James
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Charm is always genuine it may be superficial but it isn't false.
P. D. James
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Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.
P. D. James
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we can forgive anything as long as it isn't done to us.
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What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.
P. D. James
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A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
P. D. James
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It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
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Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine it may be superficial but it isn't false.
P. D. James
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If from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.
P. D. James
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A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.
P. D. James
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Authors always take rejection badly. They equate it with infanticide.
P. D. James