There 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.
BARBARA MERTZI am so tired of ruggedly handsome heroes. I don’t know too many ruggedly handsome people who are necessarily nice people. In fact, the beautiful people have a big handicap because they rely too much on their appearance and don’t bother to become interesting.
More Barbara Mertz Quotes
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I do hope you have some money. I’m getting tired of hitting people.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Money was the manure of politics.
BARBARA MERTZ -
That’s maturity-when you realize that you’ve finally arrived at a state of ignorance as profound as your parents.
BARBARA MERTZ -
If all else fails, we will simply have to drug our attendants, overpower the guards, raise the oppressed peasants to arms, and take over the government.
BARBARA MERTZ -
He hesitated for a moment. Then he said softly, “I love you, Mother.” He took my hand and kissed it, and folded my fingers round the stem of the rose. He had stripped it of its thorns.
BARBARA MERTZ -
kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.
BARBARA MERTZ -
I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle…. Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! (Amelia Peabody)
BARBARA MERTZ -
I never meant to marry. In my opinion, a woman born in the last half of the nineteenth century of the Christian era suffered from enough disadvantages without willfully embracing another.
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.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Nefret had always had an uncanny ability to read his thoughts. ‘Did she cry?’ she asked sweetly. ‘And then you kissed her? You shouldn’t have done that. I’m sure you meant well, but kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Writing is like a bird-watcher watching for birds: the stories are there: you just have to train yourself to look for them.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Cats always pick the laps of the people who don’t like them.
BARBARA MERTZ -
The combination of physical strength and moral sincerity combined with tenderness of heart is exactly what is wanted in a husband.–Ameila Peabody
BARBARA MERTZ -
There are too many people in the world as it is, but the supply of ancient manuscripts is severely limited.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Many persons lead lives of crushing boredom.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Getting an idea for a book is not the problem, but you need 300 ideas – an idea a page.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice.
BARBARA MERTZ -
I don’t think she realized how much she cared for him, or he for her, until the end. Hasn’t someone said a woman may be known by the men who love her enough to die for her? (If they haven’t, I claim the credit myself.)
BARBARA MERTZ -
Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.
BARBARA MERTZ -
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.
BARBARA MERTZ -
It was hate at first sight, clean, pure and strong as grain alcohol.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point
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.
BARBARA MERTZ -
Conventional history completely ignores half the human race.
BARBARA MERTZ -
I do, however, think it would be difficult to write books I don’t like to read.
BARBARA MERTZ