The Stranger Diaries Quotes

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“Why are Georgette Heyer's covers so naff? When you think of all the exciting things that happen - abductions, false identities, wild horseback chases - the front of the book nearly always shows a woman in a ballgown, simpering sweetly up at a man.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“It’s to make sense of things,’ she said, at last. ‘Nothing’s as bad if you put it in writing. It helps you to take control, order things. Find a pattern, like you said.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“Gary had started talking about ‘the old days’. He might have happy memories of teenage parties and football games but I left all that behind the day I left Talgarth High. Never go back, that’s my motto.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“But, recently—I don’t know why—the words have dried up. Write every day, that’s what I tell my students. Don’t wait for inspiration, that might not come until the end. The muse always finds you working. Look into your heart and write. But, like most teachers, I’m not brilliant at taking my own advice.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“He was a recluse, the old-fashioned sort with a housekeeper and a full staff. I’m not sure I would leave the house myself if I had someone to cook and clean for me, to iron the Times and place it on a tray with my morning infusion.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“Without faith we have no hope of the resurrection and we are for ever reliving Easter Saturday without the dawn rising on the Sabbath.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“The only way to get through it is to get through it. Who said”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“What on earth had attracted two gorgeous women to this insignificant-looking man? Heterosexuals are a mystery sometimes.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“The first thing,’ I said, ‘is tea. Georgia, can you put the kettle on? Second thing, plan of attack.’ I got out my notebook. ‘When did you last see Herbert?”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“my brother Kush always wore a leather jacket instead of the blazer and I don’t remember anyone telling him off. Kush was always cool, which was handy for me, because I wasn’t.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“Ty on the beach holding a lucky stone—the sort with a hole in the middle, witch stones Miss Hughes says they’re called—up to the light.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“It’s a quote,’ I say. ‘From The Tempest.’ ‘What’s the next line?’ says Harbinder though I’m sure she’s looked it up. ‘Hell is empty,’ I say, ‘and all the devils are here.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“The police sometimes talk about ‘distantiation’, the theory that it’s easier to shoot than stab because you can be distanced from your victim. Think of drone attacks. I’m sure the operators don’t feel like killers and yet they are.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“And, of course, it was me that fell in love with Herbert. Oh, Georgie loves him. She takes him for walks and endows him with all sorts of anthropomorphic emotions. ‘Herbert feels shy around other dogs. It’s because he’s an only child.’ But I’m the one who dotes on him, who tells him my troubles and lets him sleep on—and often in—my bed. I love him so much that sometimes, when I look at him, I’m quite surprised to see that he’s covered in hair.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries

“The TV was off and I could see a book face down on the coffee table. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I thought of Ella Elphick, sitting in the dark with her herbal tea. Someone really should teach these women about Netflix.”
― Elly Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries