212 Quotes by Ruth Rendell

I don't know that I am fascinated with crime. I'm fascinated with people and their characters and their obsessions and what they do. And these things lead to crime, but I'm much more fascinated in their minds.

London underground took me on a tour of all the hidden places, the disused shafts and staircases... that was very interesting.

I don't know what I would do if I didn't write.

I try, and I think I succeed, in making my readers feel sorry for my psychopaths, because I do.

I don't care for people who are given peerages who have paid for them. I think it happens, and I don't like that.

I get a lot of letters from people. They say "I want to be a writer. What should I do?" I tell them to stop writing to me and to get on with it.

I don't choose my villains and heroes for political reasons.

I am curious about people. I want to know their secrets... because I am the last person to whom I would tell a secret; people tell me their secrets.

When one has children one has no privacy. They take it for granted that what is yours is theirs, personal things and the secrets of your heart, as well as possessions.