“People do sometimes ask me some really idiotic questions: 'Is your hus...” — Ruth Rendell Quote

“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.”

“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 like to show what happens to people in the past and how it affects their present.”

“It's just as idiotic to say there is no life after death as it is to say there is one.”

“I always find it easier to portray myself as being unlikeable and idiotic; to actually play a character that is likeable and engages the audience is far more difficult. It's a more subtle kind of challenge.”

“I don't get hassled when I am doing a role that looks idiotic to me.”