P. D. James - Death Quotes

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I had an interest in death from an early age. It fascinated me. When I heard 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,' I thought, 'Did he fall or was he pushed?'

P. D. James

A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.

P. D. James

People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death?

P. D. James

We all die alone. We shall endure death as once we enjoyed birth. You can't share either experience.

P. D. James

I knew the facts of death before I knew the facts of life. There never was a time when I didn't see the skull beneath the skin.

P. D. James

Death... obliterates family resemblance as it does personality: there is no affinity between the living and the dead.

P. D. James

If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk.

P. D. James

In youth we take egregious risks because death has no reality for us. Youth goes caparisoned in immortality. It is only in middle age that we are shadowed by the awareness of the transitoriness of life.

P. D. James