Ripley is married. And he's not lost. He has his feet on the ground. Patricia Highsmith More Quotes by Patricia Highsmith More Quotes From Patricia Highsmith Honestly, I don't understand why people get so worked up about a little murder! Patricia Highsmith murder littles people The night was a time for bestial affinities, for drawing closer to oneself. Patricia Highsmith affinity drawing night I know you have it in you, Guy," Anne said suddenly at the end of a silence, "the capacity to be terribly happy. Patricia Highsmith guy silence ends Anticipation! It occurred to him that his anticipation was more pleasant to him than the experiencing. Patricia Highsmith pleasant anticipation He loved possessions, not masses of them, but a select few that he did not part with.They gave a man self-respect. Not ostentation but quality, and the love that cherished the quality. Possessions reminded him that he existed, and made him enjoy his existence. It was as simple as that. And wasn' t that worth something? He existed. Patricia Highsmith simple self men Perhaps it was freedom itself that choked her. Patricia Highsmith How easy it was to lie when one had to lie! Patricia Highsmith easy lying I can't write if someone else is in the house, not even the cleaning woman. Patricia Highsmith cleaning house writing I think J.D. Salinger is correct in granting no interviews, and in making no speeches Patricia Highsmith interviews speech thinking They were not friends. They didn't know each other. It struck Tom like a horrible truth, true for all time, true for the people he had known in the past and for those he would know in the future: each had stood and would stand before him, and he would know time and time again that he would never know them, and the worst was that there would always be the illusion, for a time, that he did know them, and that he and they were completely in harmony and alike. For an instant the wordless shock of his realization seemed more than he could bear. Patricia Highsmith realization people past When I am thickening my plots, I like to think 'What if ... What if ... ' Thus my imagination can move from the likely, which everyone can think of, to the unlikely-but-possible, my preferred plot. Patricia Highsmith imagination moving thinking I was in New York. Hitchcock was in California. He rang me to make a report on his progress and said, I'm having trouble. I've just sacked my second screenwriter Patricia Highsmith progress california new-york one blow in anger [would] kill, probably, a child from aged two to eight. Those over eight would take two blows to kill. Patricia Highsmith eight blow children The justice I have received, I shall give back. Patricia Highsmith giving-back justice giving I don't want to know movie directors. I don't want to be close to them. I don't want to interfere with their work. I don't want them to interfere with mine. Patricia Highsmith movie-director want directors The conversation seemed just as boring and forgettable as details of American history around 1805, for example. Patricia Highsmith details boring example I prefer to live in the country where it's quiet. Woody Allen movies there are dubbed into Italian. Patricia Highsmith italian quiet country Then Carol slipped her arm under her neck, and all the length of their bodies touched fitting as if something had prearranged it. Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh. She had a vision of a pale white flower, shimmering as if seen in darkness, or through water. Why did people talk of heaven, she wondered Patricia Highsmith flower white people Dusk was falling quickly. It was just after 7 P.M., and the month was October. Patricia Highsmith october months fall I didn't hang around films. I don't know if I'd ever seen Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Patricia Highsmith hitchcock film knows