Body of Evidence Quotes

“Has all the trappings of a mystery novel, doesn't it?”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“I didn't know what I wanted. Maybe I never had. The emotional distance was never worth the togetherness, and yet I didn't learn. Nothing had changed. Had he reached for me, I would have forgotten to behave sensibly. Desire has no reason, and the need for intimacy had never stopped. I had not conjured up the images in years, his lips on mine, his hands, the urgency of our hunger. Now I was tormented by the memories.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“I’m too old for change,” she explained. “I’m too old to pursue good health and new relationships. The past breathes for me. It is my life. You are young, Dr. Scarpetta. Someday you will see what it is like to look back. You will find it inescapable. You will find your personal history drawing you back into familiar rooms where, ironically, events occurred that set into motion your eventual estrangement from life. You will find the hard furniture of heartbreak more comfortable and the people who failed you friendlier with time. You will find yourself running back into the arms of the pain you once ran away from. It is easier. That’s all I can say. It is easier.” “Do”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“If you have enough bad things happen to you in life, others begin to privately question if you invite them, are a magnet that attracts misfortune or danger or dysfunction.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“The older I got, the more I was of the opinion that love can be experienced in many different ways. There is no right or wrong way to love, only in how it is expressed.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“I was reminded of the old pain, a pain once so intense it was physical.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“I intended to beat down any lingering resistance with bluntness.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“Most of us feel isolated and paranoid during stressful times. We feel alone in the wilderness.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“You can never be real sure who's all right and who ain't... It's real hard to know these days, that's for damn sure.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“Some people simply want company.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“i had fired 9-millimeters before and didn't like them. they weren't as accurate as my .38 special. they weren't as safe, and they could jam. i had never been one to substitute quantity for quality, and there was no substitution for being informed and practiced”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“Like every other mortal who has ever been touched by suicide, I had the fallacious belief that I could have done something to stop it.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“A significant portion of the human race has no idea what it is like to be attached to short legs, and I am forever finding myself indignantly pumping along like a handcar in a world of express trains.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“Desire has no reason, and the need for intimacy had never stopped. I had not conjured up the images in years, his lips on mine, his hands, the urgency of our hunger. Now I was tormented by the memories.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“Reclusiveness does peculiar things to one’s mind. Turns it inside out, puts a spin on thoughts and ideas until they begin to bounce off center and at crazy angles.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“a gothic South of violence, incest, and racism as seen through the eyes of a young writer”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you, Dr. Scarpetta, that many homosexual males are the sons of big brutes who drive pickups with gun racks and Confederate flag bumper stickers.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“Virtually every heinous event that occurs in this world was first conceived in thought.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“But not the same way I love you,” I said, my heart gripped by the worst pain I ever remember feeling.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“When I first studied the photographs I could not tell what she looked like or even the color of her hair. All I saw was red.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“I felt the emotion of the crime. It wasn't anger. It was worse than that.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence

“It is hard to leave your iron lung, Dr. Scarpetta.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Body of Evidence