Writing is like a bird-watcher watching for birds: the stories are there: you just have to train yourself to look for them.
BARBARA MERTZThere is nothing sadder than the cheerful letters of the dead, expressing hopes that were never fulfilled, ambitions that were never achieved, dreams cut off before they could come to fruition.
More Barbara Mertz Quotes
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Loving someone condemns you to a lifetime of fear. You become painfully conscious of how fragile people are – bundles of brittle bones and vulnerable flesh, breeding grounds for billions of deadly germs and horrible diseases.
BARBARA MERTZ -
His masculinity was only too apparent
BARBARA MERTZ -
There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.
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Giving other people advice is one of the most irritating and useless activities known to man.
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…Nefret said with a gusty sigh, ‘Well, that’s done it. We may as well join in, Ramses, family arguments are the favorite form of amusement here and this looks like being a loud one.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn’t planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I’m not recommending it as a way to write. It’s very sloppy, but it works for me.
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When men start talking about ‘honor’, there is sure to be trouble ahead.
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..he continues to cling to the forlorn hope that I will turn into one of those swooning females…and fling myself squeeling at him whenever anything happens. Like all men, he clings to his illusions.
BARBARA MERTZ -
a church ought to express the joy of religion as well as its majesty.
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I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to – mostly the latter.
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Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point
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I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family.” “Very boring, Emerson.
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Money was the manure of politics.
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You are softening toward the young rascal because he is ill, and because he says he likes cats.” “It is an engaging quality, Emerson.” “That depends,” said Emerson darkly, “on how he likes them.
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Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.
BARBARA MERTZ






