Mrs. McGinty's Dead Quotes

“Authors were shy, unsociable creatures, atoning for their lack of social aptitude by inventing their own companions and conversations.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“Alas," murmured Poirot to his mustaches, "that one can only eat three times a day ...”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“For somewhere," said Poirot to himself, indulging in an absolute riot of mixed metaphors, "there is in the hay a needle, and among the sleeping dogs there is one on whom I shall put my foot, and by shooting the arrows into the air, one will come down and hit a glass house!”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“Sometimes I think there are people who only read books in the hope of finding mistakes in them.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“A secret de Polichinelle is a secret that everyone can know. For this reason the people who do not know it never hear about it - for if everyone thinks you know a thing, nobody tells you.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“The truth is I’m not very good with people.
I think trees are much nicer than people, more restful.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“you’ve no idea of the agony of having your characters taken and made to say things that they never would have said, and do things that they never would have done. And if you protest, all they say is that it’s ‘good theatre.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“I have news for you. Splendid news. Somebody has tried to kill me.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“He was tired because he had been thinking. Thinking was always exhausting.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“The bereaved had never any doubt about their dear ones’ wishes and those wishes usually squared with their own inclinations.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“And a lot of fandangle it usually is,” said Mrs. Burch. “Forms to fill in, and a lot of impertinent questions as shouldn’t be asked of any decent body.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“I don’t know, I’m sure,” said Mrs. Burch. She had said that three times already. Her natural distrust of foreign-looking gentlemen with black moustaches, wearing large fur-lined coats was not to be easily overcome.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“You know, Maureen, I seem to have seen that name somewhere.” “Home Perm, perhaps. He looks like a hairdresser.” Poirot winced.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“I suffer,” said Hercule Poirot to himself in acute self-pity. “Yes, I suffer.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“There you are, Ariadne,” said Robin. “The whole plot of your next novel presented to you. All you’ll have to do is work in a few false clues, and—of course—do the actual writing.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“We’re both very crime-minded. Read a lot about it.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“His name, he noted with chagrin, made no particular impression on her. The younger generation, he could not but feel, were singularly lacking in knowledge of notable celebrities”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“I didn’t get to that pudding in time. It had boiled dry. I think it’s really all right—just a little scorched perhaps. In case it tasted rather nasty I thought I would open a bottle of those raspberries I put up last summer. They seem to have a bit of mould on top but they say nowadays that that doesn’t matter. It’s really rather good for you—practically penicillin.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“I, too, suffer.' said Poirot. 'The cooking of Madame Summerhayes, it is beyond description. It is not cooking at all. And the draughts, the cold winds, the upset stomachs of the cats, the long hairs of the dogs, the broken legs of the chairs, the terrible, terrible bed in which I sleep' - he shut his eyes in remembrance of agonies - 'the tepid water in the bathrooms, the holes in the stair carpet, and the coffee - words cannot describe to you the fluid which they serve to you as coffee. It is an affront to the stomach.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“nice people like to preserve their niceness. Years”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“The subjects of them did not look tragic. They looked, actually, rather ridiculous, since nearly all of them were dressed in the style of a bygone day, and nothing is more ridiculous than the fashions of yesterday—though in another thirty years or so their charm may have reappeared, or at any rate be once more apparent.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“The Kiddles had come and conquered. Life was stronger than death.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“There just didn’t seem anyone else who could have done it. I thought perhaps he’d gone a little mad.” “Did he ever seem to you a little—what shall I say—queer?” “Oh no. Not queer in that way. He was just shy and awkward as anyone might be. The truth was, he didn’t make the best of himself. He hadn’t confidence in himself.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“A large fierce-looking dog whom Poirot suspected of having mange growled from his position on a moderately comfortable fourth chair.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“This is she.” “Are you really?” said Maureen. “How thrilling. You and Robin are doing a play together, aren’t you?”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“Alas,” murmured Poirot to his moustaches, “that one can only eat three times a day. .”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“convenient”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“What a wonderful dispensation it is of Nature’s,” thought Hercule Poirot, “that every man, however superficially unattractive, should be some woman’s choice.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“talk, however light, however idle, gives away, inevitably, the sort of person you are.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“When people barely notice you’re alive, you’re not likely to have any enemies.”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead