Patricia Cornwell quotes:

When I was in second grade, my mother moved from Miami to this evangelical conservative environment in western North Carolina, two miles down the road from Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth.

My friends call me Miss Worst Case Scenario.

Being with someone who is smart and gives good advice adds tremendously wonderful elements to your life.

Even when I am writing I usually take a break around lunchtime and go for a little walk to clear out my head.

Night fell clean and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air.

I wouldn't want to donate my body for scientific study.

I am an Armani and a Dolce & Gabbana kind of a person.

I didn't invent forensic science and medicine. I just was one of the first people to recognize how interesting it is.

On the last morning of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War, I built a fire and sat facing a window of darkness where at sunrise I knew I would find the sea.

I like crazy shoes or unusual cowboy boots and I collect big belt buckles.

Everyone is doing forensics.

Survival was my only hope, success my only revenge.

I refuse to sit on my laurels.

I've never taken a scalpel to a dead body.

I've had people turn up to book signings with knives, with guns.

In the first person, the readers feel smart, like it's them solving the case.

When I was at college there were two things I vowed I'd never do. One was go to a funeral and the other was deal with computers. And then I ended up being a computer programmer in a morgue.

Murder is about power and the more powerful women get the more it will change the good that they do and the bad that they do.

I dropped chemistry. I practically blew up the lab in college.

If it's really beautiful weather, sometimes I might take a helicopter out. I got my license in 1999.

First of all, it does not deter crime, the death penalty.

The greatest gift is our own eyes, sense of smell, and abilities to deduce.

Leaves covered pavement like soggy cereal.

I believe the root of all evil is abuse of power.

Even if you are a best-seller you feel insecure because it is all so unpredictable.

Being gay is just one aspect of my very complicated life. I do not wear it on my sleeve.

Has all the trappings of a mystery novel, doesn't it?

If you chomp down too hard on my work, you're going to break your teeth.

I constantly remind people that crime isn't solved by technology; it's solved by people.

Let's be honest, the world's always been a scary place with very little charm. I try to brush it off as I've brushed off the flu, as I brushed off the death of my father when I was young, as I've brushed off so much since Benton has known me.

In my forties, my optimism was boundless. I had really good health and tremendous success which allowed me to do anything I wanted.

With DNA, the ability to find out a lot more with a lot less has increased our ability for identification.

But when I was a little kid, I was always writing stories and illustrating little books that I would create.

The human capacity to be curious has always existed.

I'm very, very sensitive to pain and to people who suffer.

Obviously people read the books in order to be entertained.

That's why I think the 'Scarpetta' series has worked so well because people like spending time with this character.

The biggest risk with a series that goes on this long is that you'll get bored with the character.

America is the most violent democracy in the world. It's something that's met with great shock, horror, and mystery when I travel to other countries. They ask, Why are there so many shootings in America? Why does everyone own a gun?

And suddenly the world was filled with wooden faces and flat voices - and, you were alone.

Botox not only helps with wrinkles, it actually makes you feel more relaxed as frowning causes tension.

Do no harm & leave the world a better place than you found it.

Grief was like a seizure that shook me like a storm.

He was pushing fifty, with a face life had chewed on, and long wisps of graying hair parted low on one side and combed over his balding pate.

I don't do things that are illegal.

I find it difficult to attend autopsies. Especially the smells.

I hate the term "mystery". That's not what I write. I think the Scarpetta novels are much more character-driven than an average puzzle solver. Writing should be like a pane of glass - there's another world on the other side and your vision carries you there, but you're not aware of having passed through a barrier to get there.

I like to get to bed with a clear head.

I stop working at about 3 p.m. on Fridays.

I won't put myself in a position where I'm vulnerable.

I wouldn't want to assume that all men are like you. If I did, I know I would give them up entirely

If everybody, every day, would try to do one thing that pulls them beyond themselves the world will start being a better place.

I'm always surprised when large numbers of people buy my books.

I've always believed human blood is red because it really needs to draw attention to itself.

Life brings with it strangeness and surprises and upsets

My fans want me to talk to them. And even if they want to be critical, I want to hear what they've got to say.

rain slowly slides down the glass as if the night is crying.

Survival my only hope. Success my only revenge

The dead have never bothered me. It's the living that I fear.

Thoughts are odd misfires.

To almost die is to know that one day you will, and to never again feel the same about anything.

We create our own worlds. We destroy our own worlds. It is that simple..

You can't cure a chipped plate. All you can do is live with it or throw it out.

You have to live where you wake up, even if someone else dreamed you there.