Margaret Millar Quotes

• The smell of moist earth and lilacs hung in the air like wisps of the past and hints of the future.

  Margaret Millar

  Spring, Past, Air

  Margaret Millar (1947). “Experiment in Springtime: A Novel”, New York : Random House

  173 Copy quote

• The world of maps is nice and flat and simple. It has areas for people and areas for monsters. What a shock it is to discover the world is round and the areas merge and nothing separates the monsters and ourselves; that we are all whirling around in space together and there isn't even a graceful way of falling off.

  Margaret Millar

  Nice, Fall, Simple

  Margaret Millar (2016). “Beyond This Point Are Monsters”, p.111, Soho Press

  12 Copy quote

• You can't drown your troubles ... because troubles can swim.

  Margaret Millar

  Swim, Trouble

  9 Copy quote

• Some people become so expert at reading between the lines they don't read the lines.

  Margaret Millar

  Reading, Acceptance, People

  Margaret Millar (2015). “An Air That Kills”, p.163, Soho Press

  10 Copy quote

• Sanity is a matter of culture and convention. If it's a crazy culture you live in, then you have to be irrational to want to conform. A completely rational person would recognize that the culture was crazy and refuse to conform. But by not conforming, he is the one who would be judged crazy by that particular society.

  Margaret Millar

  Crazy, Would Be, Culture

  Margaret Millar (2016). “A Stranger in My Grave”, p.45, Soho Press

  8 Copy quote

• When someone gives me three reasons instead of one, I'm inclined not to believe any of them.

  Margaret Millar

  Believe, Giving, Three

  Margaret Millar (2016). “The Fiend”, p.218, Soho Press

  8 Copy quote

• I wish people would quit telling me to think. I think. Thinking's easy. It's not thinking that's hard.

  Margaret Millar

  Thinking, People, Wish

  Margaret Millar (2002). “Best Mysteries of All Time: A Stranger in My Grave”, Impress

  8 Copy quote

• Common sense is a vastly overrated virtue. I myself prefer the spark of genius.

  Margaret Millar

  Common Sense, Genius, Sparks

  8 Copy quote

• the smell of lilacs crept poignantly into the room like a remembered spring.

  Margaret Millar

  Spring, Smell, Rooms

  Margaret Millar (2015). “Vanish in an Instant”, p.33, Soho Press

  81 Copy quote

• To the uneducated eye, as to the incurious mind, much of the world is in darkness, and a thousand songs are lost on the unlistening ear.

  Margaret Millar

  Song, Eye, Darkness

  8 Copy quote

• Any good marriage involves a certain amount of play-acting.

  Margaret Millar

  Play, Acting, Good Marriage

  Margaret Millar (2016). “A Stranger in My Grave”, p.30, Soho Press

  7 Copy quote

• Don't borrow trouble. The interest is too high.

  Margaret Millar

  Trouble, Interest

  5 Copy quote

• Violence is the instinctive response to fear.

  Margaret Millar

  Violence, Response

  Margaret Millar (2015). “Vanish in an Instant”, p.71, Soho Press

  8 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as an ex-exhibitionist.

  Margaret Millar

  Exhibitionist, Exes

  9 Copy quote

• When you're counting alibis and not apples, one plus one equals none.

  Margaret Millar

  Apples, Excuse, Counting

  Margaret Millar (1942). “The weak-eyed bat”, Published for The Crime club by Doubleday, Doran

  9 Copy quote

• Shrews are made, not born.

  Margaret Millar

  Shrews, Born, Made

  Margaret Millar (1952). “Rose's last summer”, New York

  10 Copy quote

• That's what a conscience is made of, scar tissue ... Little strips and pieces of remorse sewn together year by year until they formed a distinctive pattern, a design for living.

  Margaret Millar

  Years, Design, Together

  Margaret Millar (2017). “Do Evil in Return”, p.73, Soho Press

  4 Copy quote

• Private problems don't constitute an excuse for bad manners.

  Margaret Millar

  Problem, Excuse, Manners

  Margaret Millar (2002). “Best Mysteries of All Time: A Stranger in My Grave”, Impress

  5 Copy quote

• Civilization has imposed countless restrictions and conventions on each of us, with the result that the subconscious in the majority of us has become a storage room without a key. We are forced to suppress or forget so many events and ideas and thoughts that those to which we should have access are lost in the welter. However, there are people who seem capable of unlocking this part of their minds and extracting relevant information.

  Margaret Millar

  Keys, Should Have, Civilization

  Margaret Millar (1942). “The weak-eyed bat”, Published for The Crime club by Doubleday, Doran

  4 Copy quote

• People, alas, are more impressed by statistics than they are by ideas.

  Margaret Millar

  Data, Ideas, People

  Margaret Millar (2016). “A Stranger in My Grave”, p.116, Soho Press

  8 Copy quote

• I've reached the age where anyone who lets me talk seems like an old By listening to my memories, you have become part of them.

  Margaret Millar

  Memories, Listening, Age

  J.J. MARRIC; MARGARET MILLAR; BILL KNOX (1977). “GIDEON'S DRIVE; ASK FOR ME TOMORROW; HELLSPOUT”

  5 Copy quote

• The sun was shining like a congratulation.

  Margaret Millar

  Congratulations, Shining, Sun

  Margaret Millar (2018). “Experiment in Springtime”, p.95, Soho Press

  8 Copy quote

• I didn't mind giving up carnality, jewelry and red meat in return for comradeship and an afterlife.

  Margaret Millar

  Giving Up, Afterlife, Mind

  J.J. MARRIC; MARGARET MILLAR; BILL KNOX (1977). “GIDEON'S DRIVE; ASK FOR ME TOMORROW; HELLSPOUT”

  9 Copy quote

• You have what is known as a lot of character, meaning you can be wrong at the top of your lungs.

  Margaret Millar

  Character, Lungs, Known

  Margaret Millar (1945). “The Iron Gates: A Psychological Novel”, Random House [1945]

  4 Copy quote

• The day will probably come when you can tell everything about a person from his dreams except his age and weight.

  Margaret Millar

  Dream, Age, Weight

  5 Copy quote

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