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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

Spring is always cruel, with its false promise of resurrection.
BARBARA MERTZ

Promise Resurrection Spring
It is easier to counterfeit old age than youth.
BARBARA MERTZ

Age Easier Youth
Many persons lead lives of crushing boredom.
BARBARA MERTZ

Boredom Crush Persons
Money was the manure of politics.
BARBARA MERTZ

Manure Money Politics
Giving other people advice is one of the most irritating and useless activities known to man.
BARBARA MERTZ

Giving Men People
I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.
BARBARA MERTZ

Clever Ideas Scrutiny
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

Credit Men Thinking
I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to – mostly the latter.
BARBARA MERTZ

Habit Latter Writing
Sekhmet crawled onto Ramses’s lap and began to purr. ‘The creature oozes like a furry slug,’ said Ramses, eyeing it without favor.
BARBARA MERTZ

Favors Lap Slugs
Humor is an excellent method of keeping a tight rein on unproductive displays of emotion.
BARBARA MERTZ

Emotion Excellent Method
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

Disease Loving People Someone
Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.
BARBARA MERTZ

Facts Prejudice Reputation
I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.
BARBARA MERTZ

Appearance Demand Female
In the silence I heard Bastet, who had retreated under the bed, carrying on a mumbling, profane monologue. (If you ask how I knew it was profane, I presume you have never owned a cat.)
BARBARA MERTZ

Bed Cat Silence
When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one’s footing.
BARBARA MERTZ

Foot Future Many One People Watches
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

Arms Drug Government

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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Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Barbara Mertz Quotes