Ngaio Marsh quotes:

It is a curious thing that when one speaks from the heart it is invariably in the worst of taste.

We do not wait for inspiration. We work because we've jolly well got to. But when all is said and done, we toil at this particular job because it's turned out to be our particular job, and in a weird sort of way I suppose we may be said to like it.

Above all things-read. Read the great stylists who cannot be copied rather than the successful writers who must not be copied.

Custom makes monsters of us all.

Expectation is the springboard of achievement.

One should have the courage of one's loneliness.

As usual she had a deceptive air of perspicacity.

if you go through life looking for insults, you may be comfortably assured of finding them.

No art should be fashionable ...

No coffee is ever quite as good as it smells ...

Why do you want to become an author? I will accept only one answer. If it is because you feel you can write better than you can do anything else then go ahead and do it without frills and flourishes. Stick to your present job and write in your spare time: but do it as if it is a whole time job.

You may be able to write a novel, you may not. You will never know until you have worked very hard indeed and written at least part of it. You will never really know until you have written the whole of it and submitted it for publication.

You must be able to write. You must have a sense of form, of pattern, of design. You must have a respect for and a mastery over words.