Quotes by Dorothy L. Sayers

About Dorothy L. Sayers:

Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
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[T]he more clamour we make about 'the women's point of view', the more we rub it into people that the women's point of view is different, and frankly I do not think it is -- at least in my job. The line I always want to take is, that there is the 'po...

Dorothy L. Sayers

[N]othing about a book is so unmistakable and so irreplaceable as the stamp of the cultured mind. I don't care what the story is about or what may be the momentary craze for books that appear to have been hammered out by the village blacksmith in a s...

Dorothy L. Sayers

[On marriage and permanent attachment:] Well, well -- the prizes all go to the women who 'play their cards well' -- but if they can only be won in that way, I would rather lose the game ... [C]lever [women] bide their time -- make themselves indispen...

Dorothy L. Sayers

[W]hen I see men callously and cheerfully denying women the full use of their bodies, while insisting with sobs and howls on the satisfaction of their own, I simply can't find it heroic, or kind, or anything but pretty rotten and feeble.

Dorothy L. Sayers

The one thing which seems to me quite impossible is to take into consideration the kind of book one is expected to write; surely one can only write the book that is there to be written. ( , 8 September 1935)

Dorothy L. Sayers

People who prefer to believe the worst of others will breed war and religious persecutions while the world lasts.

Dorothy L. Sayers

See that the mind is honest, first; the rest may follow or not as God wills. [That] the fundamental treason to the mind ... is the one fundamental treason which the scholar's mind must not allow is the bond uniting all the Oxford people in the last r...

Dorothy L. Sayers

[O]ne can scarcely be frightened off writing what one wants to write for fear an obscure reviewer should patronise one on that account.

Dorothy L. Sayers

But -- my dear, my heart is BROKEN! I have seen the perfect Peter Wimsey. Height, voice, charm, smile, manner, outline of features, -- and he is -- THE CHAPLAIN OF BALLIOL!! is the use of anything? ... I am absolutely by this Balliol business. Such w...

Dorothy L. Sayers

There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Nothing goes so well with a hot fire and buttered crumpets as a wet day without and a good dose of comfortable horrors within. The heavier the lashing of the rain and the ghastlier the details, the better the flavour seems to be.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Don't be so damned discouraging," said Wimsey. "I have already carefully explained to you that this time I am investigating this business. Anybody would think you had no confidence in me." "People have been wrongly condemned before now." "Exactly; si...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Parker looked distressed. He had confidence in Wimsey's judgment, and, in spite of his own interior certainty, he felt shaken. "My dear man, where's the flaw in [this case]?" "There isn't one ... There's nothing wrong about it at all, except that the...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Philip wasn't the sort of man to make a friend of a woman. He wanted devotion. I gave him that. I did, you know. But I couldn't stand being made a fool of. I couldn;t stand being put on probation, like an office-boy, to see if I was good enough to be...

Dorothy L. Sayers

There is something about wills which brings out the worst side of human nature. People who under ordinary circumstances are perfectly upright and amiable, go as curly as corkscrews and foam at the mouth, whenever they hear the words 'I devise and beq...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Oh, well, faint heart never won so much as a scrap of paper

Dorothy L. Sayers

(One character on another:) "Don't you know that I passionately dote on every chin on his face?

Dorothy L. Sayers

Salcombe Hardy groaned: "How long, O Lord, how long shall we have to listen to all this tripe about commercial arsenic? Murderers learn it now at their mother's knee.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Why would you family think about it?" "Oh, my mother's the only one that counts, and she likes you very much from what she's seen of you." "So you had me inspected?" "No-dash ti all, I seem to be saying all the wrong things today. I was absolutely st...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Do you know how to pick a lock?" "Not in the least, I'm afraid." "I often wonder what we go to school for," said Wimsey.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Books... are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Author Bio

  • NameDorothy L. Sayers
  • DescriptionEnglish crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer
  • AliasesDorothy Sayers; Dorothy Leigh Sayers
  • BornJune 13, 1893
  • DiedDecember 17, 1957
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Translator; Novelist; Playwright; Essayist; Poet
  • WorksWhose Body?; Clouds Of Witness; Unnatural Death; The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club; Lord Peter Views The Body; Strong Poison; Five Red Herrings; Have His Carcase; Hangman's Holiday; Murder Must Advertise; The Nine Tailors; Gaudy Night; Busman's Honeymoon; In The Teeth Of The Evidence; Striding Folly