115 Quotes by Val McDermid

It's not magic that takes us to another world - it's storytelling.

A society gets the criminals it deserves.

It’s not magic that takes us to another world – it’s storytelling.

To move forward, you have to accept the truth of a situation. Not persist in myth-making.

There’s a thing called narcissistic personality disorder. People who have an inflated sense of their own importance, a lack of empathy for others. They’re vain, they crave the power over others they think they deserve. They can be arrogant and callous. They think they’re better than everybody else and they don’t care who they trample on in their desire to get what they want.’ ‘A bit like Donald Trump, then?

Nothing warms the cockles of the heart more than the smug self-satisfaction of being right.

We make high demands on the people we expect to deliver justice, and we don’t always appreciate how much it eats away at them.

No two bodies will decompose in the same way, and at the same rate. You can have two bodies that are literally six feet apart and they will decompose in entirely different manners. It could be the amount of fat on the body. It could be the drugs they were taking, or the medication. It could be the type of clothing they’re wearing. It could be that one has a particular odour that is more attractive to flies than the other. Absolutely anything.

Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind’.