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" People do sometimes ask me some really idiotic questions: 'Is your husband afraid of you putting arsenic in his food?' I replied that I have never written a book about poison, ever. "

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" I always know when a novel is going to be a Barbara Vine one. In fact I believe that if I weren't to write it as Barbara Vine, I wouldn't be able to write it at all. "

Ruth Rendell

Believe

Vine

I Believe

" My favourite book - 'The Good Soldier' by Ford Madox Ford, which I have read about 20 times - is different from my favourite author, who is Iris Murdoch. I find her books exciting and unputdownable. Her characters are so carefully studied and in-depth; I love that. "

" I think we all fear appearing foolish in public. We don't want to be laughed at. "

" Why do we have to have violence, torture, brutality in crime dramas every time we turn on television? Any new crime drama is going to have, sooner or later, a lot of torture and nasty things that make people flinch. Lots of young people I know shrink and flinch from that kind of thing on television, so I think showing it is a mistake. "

" I think that people who make a lot of money - and I do - should certainly give a considerable amount of it away. "

" I write every morning. From about a quarter to nine to a quarter to one. It might be nine to one, or 8:30 to 12:30. "

" My father had several strokes and heart attacks. I was with him when he died, and it was a horrible death. He had been a very articulate man, and to lose that, never to be able to speak properly and to be unable to move - he had always been a very vigorous man, so to be in a wheelchair and mumbling - was terrible. "

" I'm careful about keeping myself fit and thin, or as thin as I can manage. "

" People tell me the most extraordinary things. I've noticed it for years. Perhaps they know I won't be shocked. Or judgmental. "

" The old detective story that's got a really complicated motive doesn't apply to mine. "

" You don't knock television, even if you don't always like what they make of your work. It makes all the difference between being an also-ran writer and very famous. "

" I always write about subjects which attract me because if I didn't, it would be awful, a failure. "

Ruth Rendell

Always

Attract

" My mother was a Swede who grew up in Denmark. When I go there, I visit the street where she grew up and look at her house, which is still there, and the snowberry bush, from which she ate some berries and had to have her stomach pumped. "

" I'm not much of a shoe person, but I love a pair by Bruno Magli that I've had for 10 years. "

" I - I love being told by people that they enjoy my books, and I think that's really very nice. "

" I wouldn't be young again even if it were possible, but I am not going to pretend that growing old is all sweetness and light. "

" Some women say as they get older they're no longer noticed: they disappear. Men, for instance, don't see them. Nobody wants them. That doesn't happen to me because of who I am. Not because I'm any more scintillating company, but because I'm Ruth Rendell. "

Ruth Rendell

Women

I Am

" I don't want to be a fusty old lady writer. "

" I don't know what I would do if I didn't write. "

" I always write about what interests me. "

" I don't want to marry anybody, but I certainly wouldn't want to marry a bad novelist. "

" The knives of jealousy are honed on details. "

" In 'The Blood Doctor,' I wrote about the history of haemophilia and the devastating effects of the disease at a time when there was no remedy. "

" I don't make any notes, but I do know where to find things. Suppose I need to know where Wexford first talked about his love of the countryside or where he quotes Larkin or what was the beginning of his hatred of racism or where he first encountered domestic violence; I would be able to find it straight away. "

" I'm very fond of Tennessee Williams' plays, and when my husband and I went to New Orleans in the late 1970s, we saw 'A Street Car Named Desire.' "

" As soon as I know it's about technological things or spies, I lose interest. I want to know what goes on in people's minds. "

" I do think that being a sort of celebrity and being well off does give me some responsibility. I think that people who make a lot of money - and I do - should certainly give a considerable amount of it away. "

Ruth Rendell

Money

Think

" I don't choose my villains and heroes for political reasons. "

" I am curious about people. I want to know their secrets... because I am the last person to whom I would tell a secret; people tell me their secrets. "

" Violence is very much with us, and we like to see it. I doubt if you can change that, and I'm not sure you should want to. I have occasionally been very upset by something I was writing, but it's quite rare: I keep my writing very separate from my life. "