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    James, P.D.


One of the things he deplored about the loss of religion, it meant that people elevated politics into a religious faith and that was dangerous.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
“Mortal Consequences,” A Taste for Death (1986)
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Added on 24-Feb-22 | Last updated 24-Feb-22
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It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
“Rhesus Positive,” A Taste for Death (1986)
 
Added on 8-Oct-14 | Last updated 8-Oct-14
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Once you have discovered what is happening, you can’t pretend not to know, you can’t abdicate responsibility. Knowledge always brings responsibility.

James - Knowledge always brings responsibility - wist.info quote

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
Devices and Desires, Book 6, ch. 10 (1990)
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Added on 31-Mar-22 | Last updated 31-Mar-22
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Children live in occupied territory. The brave and the foolhardy openly rebel against authority, whether harsh or benign. But most tread warily, outwardly accommodating themselves to alien mores and edicts while living in secret their iconoclastic and subversive lives.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
Time To Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography, “Diary 1997” (1999)
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Added on 13-Mar-24 | Last updated 13-Mar-24
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Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens to a writer — however happy, however tragic — is ever wasted.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
In “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction,” The Guardian (20 Feb 2010)
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Added on 5-Jun-14 | Last updated 5-Jun-14
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I don’t think writers choose their genre, the genre chooses us. I wrote out of a wish to create order out of disorder. The liking of pattern.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
Interview with Jake Kerridge (Sep 2009)
 
Added on 11-Jan-12 | Last updated 11-Jan-12
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What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
Interview, Face (Dec 1986)
 
Added on 8-Apr-08 | Last updated 8-Apr-08
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