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" While most of the things you've worried about have never happened, it's a different story with the things you haven't worried about. They are the ones that happen. "

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" I do write about obsession, but I don't think I have an obsession for writing. I'm not a compulsive writer. I like to watch obsession in other people, watch the way it makes them behave. "

Ruth Rendell

Think

Way

People

" 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. "

" We, people, are so very, very complicated that no matter how well drawn a fictional character is, they can't get anywhere near as complex as a real person. "

" 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. "

" I never carry a notebook while walking around London. I just pick those things up. I'm very good at quizzes. "

" I really do literally put myself into a character's shoes. "

" 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. "

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

" I get up just before six and come downstairs, put food out for the cats, and open the cat flap. Then I work out for 35 or 40 minutes - I have a very large bathroom with an elliptical cross-trainer and a bicycle. "

" Women's rights are more important than their ethnic rights. "

" I just want to tell a good story, so I always ask myself, 'Are these people real to me?' "

" People always tell me my books are so dark; I don't think they're particularly dark. I'm not like that. I'm quite a cheerful soul. "

Ruth Rendell

Soul

Dark

" 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. "

" In judging other people's work, particularly short stories, I have noticed how novice writers tell the readers everything about their characters in the first paragraphs, disclose their motives, reveal their recent activities and their future intentions. "

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

" I really am not affected by the tragic aspects of my books. "

Ruth Rendell

Really

Books

" I was imbued from a very early age with a sense of doom. "

" I never make notes; just a few small details when I'm writing, but nothing much. The plot is never written down. I will tell the story to myself, but I won't plan it. I'll speak the narrative in my head for a while. "

" I call myself an agnostic. I'm open to change. I'm the same sort of person, although much less aggressive, as Richard Dawkins. "

" It sounds awful and sort of goody two-shoes, but I never eat between meals. "

" Crimes are more often committed out of fear than wickedness. People live frightened, desperate lives. "

Ruth Rendell

Live

Fear

" It's not necessary with your friends to discuss something you know you will disagree profoundly on. "

" Hugh Grant will always be associated with his scandal, and so will Max Mosley. "

" Some women lose their husbands, and their worlds change because their financial circumstances change. All I have in common with them is a grief. "

" 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. "

" I don't think the Barbara Vines are mysteries in any sense. The Barbara Vine is much more slowly paced. It is a much more in-depth, searching sort of book; it doesn't necessarily have a murder in it. "

Ruth Rendell

Book

Searching

" 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. "

" I never was religious, really, but I'm very interested in religion. "

" I don't think it's good for people to be born into money and not know what it is never to have it. "

" I used to get an awful lot of letters, and they have almost all gone. I used to answer nearly all of them. "