Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (1890-09-15 – 1976-01-12) was an English author of detective fiction.
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I have given them life instead of death, freedom instead of the cords of superstition, beauty and truth instead of corruption and exploitation.- Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.
- "Hercule Poirot" in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
- Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.
- The ABC Murders (1936) Ch. 17
- I have given them life instead of death, freedom instead of the cords of superstition, beauty and truth instead of corruption and exploitation. The old bad days are over for them, the Light of the Aton has risen, and they can dwell in peace and harmony freed from the shadow of fear and oppression.
- Akhenaten, as portrayed in Akhnaton (1937); Christie later revised the play slightly in 1972, and it was published in 1973.
- An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.
- Christie denied having made this remark, which had been attributed to her by her second husband Sir Max Mallowan in a news report (1954-03-09)
- According to Nigel Dennis, "Genteel Queen of Crime: Agatha Christie Puts Her Zest for Life Into Murder", Life, Volume 40, N° 20, 14 May 1956, she was quoting "a witty wife".
- Oh dear, I never realized what a terrible lot of explaining one has to do in a murder!
- Spider's Web (1956)
- It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.
- I have a certain experience of the way people tell lies.
- "Miss Marple" in A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
- This is the first story featuring "Hercule Poirot".
- The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as "The Styles Case" has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours which still persist.
- Captain Arthur Hastings
- Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend.
- Hercule Poirot
- I am not keeping back facts. Every fact that I know is in your possession. You can draw your own deductions from them.
- Hercule Poirot
- "This affair must all be unravelled from within." He tapped his forehead. "These little grey cells. It is 'up to them' — as you say over here."
- Hercule Poirot
- I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.
- Hercule Poirot
The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
- "Eh bien, Mademoiselle, all through my life I have observed one thing - ´All one wants one gets!´ Who knows?" His face screwed itself up comically. "You may get more than you bargain for."
- Hercule Poirot
- I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.
- Hercule Poirot
- Men are foolish, are they not, Mademoiselle? To eat, to drink, to breathe the good air, it is a very pleasant thing, Mademoiselle. One is foolish to leave all that simply because one has no money - or because the heart aches. L´amour, it causes many fatalities, does it not?
- Hercule Poirot
- I was wrong about that young man of yours. A man when he is making up to anybody can be cordial and gallant and full of little attentions and altogether charming. But when a man is really in love he can't help looking like a sheep. Now, whenever that young man looked at you he looked like a sheep. I take back all I said this morning. It is genuine.
- Miss Viner
- "I saw a particular personage and I threatened him - yes, Mademoiselle, I, Hercule Poirot, threatened him." "With the police?" "No," said Poirot drily, "With the Press - a much more deadly weapon."
- "Life is like a train Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so." "Why?" "Because the train gets to its journey's end at last, and there is a proverb about that in your language, Mademoiselle." "'Journeys end in lovers meeting'" Lenox laughed. "That is not going to be true for me." "Yes - yes, it is true. You are young, younger than you yourself know. Trust the train Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it."
Peril at End House (1932)
- I like to inquire into everything. Hercule Poirot is a good dog. The good dog follows the scent, and if, regrettably, there is no scent to follow, he noses around — seeking always something that is not very nice.
- Hercule Poirot
Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
- The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.
- Hercule Poirot
- Exactly! It is absurd — improbable — it cannot be. So I myself have said. And yet, my friend, there it is! one cannot escape from the facts.
- Hercule Poirot
Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
- I don't pretend to be an author or to know anything about writing. I'm doing this simply because Dr Reilly asked me to, and somehow when Dr Reilly asks you to do a thing you don't like to refuse.
- Amy Leatheran
- That was the worst of Dr Reilly. You never knew whether he was joking or not. He always said things in the same slow melancholy way — but half the time there was a twinkle underneath it.
- Amy Leatheran
- Believe me, nurse, the difficulty of beginning will be nothing to the difficulty of knowing how to stop. At least that's the way it is with me when I have to make a speech. Someone's got to catch hold of my coat-tails and pull me down by main force.
- Dr Reilly
- God bless my soul, woman, the more personal you are the better! This is a story of human beings — not dummies! Be personal — be prejudiced — be catty — be anything you please! Write the thing your own way. We can always prune out the bits that are libellous afterwards!
- Dr Reilly
- I don't think I shall ever forget my first sight of Hercule Poirot. Of course, I got used to him later on, but to begin with it was a shock, and I think everyone else must have felt the same! I don't know what I'd imagined — something like Sherlock Holmes — [...] Of course, I knew he was a foreigner, but I hadn't expected him to be quite as foreign as he was, if you know what I mean. When you saw him you just wanted to laugh! He was like something on the stage or at the pictures. [...] He looked like a hairdresser in a comic play!
- Amy Leatheran
Death on the Nile (1937)
Poirot (to Colonel Race): "We know almost all there is to know. Except that what we know seems incredible. Impossible."
Mrs Van Schuyler: You perfectly foul French upstart! Hercule Poirot: Belgian upstart, please, madame
Salome Otterbourne (referring to the juice she is drinking): Barman. This crocodile has lost its crock.
(Simon and Linnet Doyle arrive at the Temple of Abu Simbel, the wind picks up, and an uninvited guest appears) Jacqueline De Bellefort: Welcome to the Temple of Abu Simbel. The façade is 84 feet long. Each of the statues is 65 feet high. Linnet Ridgeway Doyle: GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM ME!
Rosalie Otterbourne (on learning of her mother's murder): I can't believe it. Mother dead. Why? Jim Ferguson: She must have found something out. Rosalie: Oh, God. Poor darling. I loved her in spite of it all (starts crying). And now she's gone. I can't take it in. Suddenly, I'm... Jim: All alone. (Rosalie nods) Jim. No you're not. I'll look after you. Rosalie: Oh, Jim (she cuddles up to him). Poor mother. Jim: You would never have got away from her. Not while she was alive.
(Mrs Van Schuyler is using her magnifying glass to study a picture of Linnet) Mrs Van Schuyler: So that's the Ridgeway girl. Miss Bowers: What are you studying so closely? The picture, or her pearls? Mrs Van Schuyler: Keep a civil tongue in your head, Bowers, or you will be out of a job. Miss Bowers: What do I care? This town is filled with rich old widows willing to pay for a little grovelling and a body massage. You go ahead and fire me. Mrs Van Schuyler: Temper, temper, Bowers. It's obvious you need a holiday (picks up newspaper). How would a little trip down the Nile suit you? Miss Bowers: There is nothing I would dislike more. If there are two things in the world I can't abide, it's heat and heathens (snatches the paper while she speaks). Mrs Van Shuyler: Good. Then we'll go. Bowers, pack. (Bowers throws down the paper)
Death Comes as the End (1945)
- Because, Renisenb, it is so easy and it costs so little labour to write down ten bushels of barley, or a hundred head of cattle, or ten fields of spelt - and the thing that is written will come to seem like the real thing, and so the writer and the scribe will come to despise the man who ploughs the fields and reaps the barley and raises the cattle - but all the same the fields and the cattle are real - they are not just marks of inks on papyrus. And when all the records and all the papyrus rolls are destroyed and the scribes are scattered, the men who toil and reap will go on, and Egypt will still live.
- Hori
- "You know that in all tombs there is always a false door?" Renisenb stared. "Yes, of course." "Well, people are like that too. They create a false door - to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhwlming authority - and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is a bare rock ... And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth - their true self reasserts itself."
- "It is the kind of thing that happens to you when you are stupid," said Esa. "Things go entirely differently from the way you planned them."
The Hollow (1946)
- I must have a talk with you, David, and learn all the new ideas. As far as I can see, one must hate everybody but at the same time give them free medical attention and a lot of extra education, poor things! All those helpless little children herded into schoolhouses every day—and cod liver oil forced down babies’ throats whether they like it or not—such nasty-smelling stuff.
- Lucy Angkatell
- John, forgive me... for what I can't help doing.
- Henrietta Savernake
- And if you cast down an idol, there's nothing left.
- Henrietta Savernake
Dead Man's Folly (1956)
- I can imagine anything! That's the trouble with me. I can imagine things now — this minute. I could even make them sound all right, but of course none of them would be true.
- Ariadne Oliver
- It would be difficult Bland thought, to forget Hercule Poirot, and this not entirely for complimentary reasons.
Curtain - Poirot's Last Case (1975)
- Who is there who has not felt a sudden startled pang at reliving an old experience or feeling an old emotion?
- This, Hastings, will be my last case. It will be, too, my most interesting case — and my most interesting criminal.
- Hercule Poirot
- I have no more now to say. I do not know, Hastings, if what I have done is justified or not justified. No — I do not know. I do not believe that a man should take the law into his own hands... But on the other hand, I am the law! As a young man in the Belgian police force I shot down a desperate criminal who sat on a roof and fired at people below. In a state of emergency martial law is proclaimed.
- I have always been so sure — too sure... But now I am very humble and I say like a little child: "I do not know..." ~ Hercule Poirot
An Autobiography (1977)
- I don't think necessity is the mother of invention — invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
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- The best time to plan a book is while you are doing the dishes
External links
Wikipedia has an article about: Agatha Christie Wikisource has original works written by or about: Agatha Christie- Official Agatha Christie site
- Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles at Project Gutenberg
- The Secret Adversary at Project Gutenberg
- A review of Christie's works
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hudsonstarobserver.com
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:52:52 GMT+00:00
Hudson Star Observer Agatha Christie's The Hollow runs Sept. 10-26 at The Phipps Center for the Arts. The mystery is about a weekend getaway that explodes into murder with ...
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Margot
ue, 10 Aug 2010 08:33:27 GM
In her autobiography . Agatha Christie. revealed that these two characters were two of her favorites. I wished she had featured them more often. Over the past few weeks I've been forcing myself to read the stories one at a time and waiting ...
Why does Agatha Christie turn her characters into animals in the novel and then there were none?
Q. why you feel Agatha Christie does this and whether or not you feel she succeeds in doing it effectively.? Why are the characters becoming more beast-like or bestial as the novel progresses in the novel and then there were none Plz i need the answer as soon as possible
Asked by Angel - Sat Dec 6 15:02:54 2008 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments
A. At first, I thought you were reading a different version of the novel than I read. You have all of those people trapped together, and they start dying. Each knows it's only a matter of time before the killer gets around to them. Each believes it's one of the other people on the island. There's more than a little tension there. People do funny things under stress, especially in a life-or-death situation like that. I think Christie did an excellent job of depicting this perfectly understandable reaction on the parts of her characters.
Answered by Diane M - Sat Dec 6 15:10:04 2008
Q. why you feel Agatha Christie does this and whether or not you feel she succeeds in doing it effectively.? Why are the characters becoming more beast-like or bestial as the novel progresses in the novel and then there were none Plz i need the answer as soon as possible
Asked by Angel - Sat Dec 6 15:02:54 2008 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments
A. At first, I thought you were reading a different version of the novel than I read. You have all of those people trapped together, and they start dying. Each knows it's only a matter of time before the killer gets around to them. Each believes it's one of the other people on the island. There's more than a little tension there. People do funny things under stress, especially in a life-or-death situation like that. I think Christie did an excellent job of depicting this perfectly understandable reaction on the parts of her characters.
Answered by Diane M - Sat Dec 6 15:10:04 2008
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