12 Agatha Christie Quotes for Writers and About Writing
Here are 12 Agatha Christie quotes for writers and about writing from the author of Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. In these quotes, Christie covers inspiration, books, killers, and more.
Dame Agatha Christie, Lady Mallowan, was the author of more than 60 novels and more than a dozen short story collections. Not only prolific, the Guinness World Records lists Christie as the bestselling novelist of all time with more than 2 billion copies of her books sold. Those books include Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
Christie's two most popular characters were detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. While Poirot was a beloved character, Christie came to loathe him and even thought he was "an egocentric creep." That said, Poirot was the only fictional character given an obituary in The New York Times (on August 6, 1975).
Here are 12 Agatha Christie quotes for writers and about writing.
12 Agatha Christie quotes for writers and about writing
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."
"Nothing turns out quite in the way that you thought it would when you are sketching out notes for the first chapter, or walking about muttering to yourself and seeing a story unroll."
"The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes."
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"Time is the best killer."
"Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it."
"Very few of us are what we seem."
"Two people rarely see the same thing."
"Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend."
"Fear is incomplete knowledge."
"If you place your head in a lion's mouth, then you cannot complain one day if he happens to bite it off."
"People should be interested in books, not their authors."
"Plots come to me at such odd moments, when I am walking along the street, or examining a hat shop...suddenly a splendid idea comes into my head."
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
