Quotes by John D. MacDonald

About John D. MacDonald:

John Dann MacDonald was an American writer of novels and short stories, known for his thrillers.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody threw the girl off the bridge.

John D. MacDonald

Please not yet. Those are the three eternal words. Please not yet.

John D. MacDonald

I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess that we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it.

John D. MacDonald

A woman who does not guard and treasure herself cannot be of very much value to anyone else.

John D. MacDonald

When you see the ugliness behind the tears of another person, it makes you take a closer look at your own.

John D. MacDonald

At times it seems as if arranging to have no commitment of any kind to anyone would be a special freedom. But in fact the whole idea works in reverse. The most deadly commitment of all is to be committed only to one's self. Some come to realize this ...

John D. MacDonald

It is one thing to look at a mistreated boat and another to look at a tomb. The silence of the bay seemed more intense. And I could see the glint of the carrion flies.

John D. MacDonald

When you look at pictures of people you know are dead, there is something different about the eyes. As if they anticipated their particular fate.It is a visceral recognition. I told myself I was getting too fanciful and went to bed.

John D. MacDonald

By noon, in a gray February world, we had come down through snow flurries to land at Albany, and had taken off again. When the snow ended the sky was a luminous gray. I looked down at the winter calligraphy of upstate New York, white fields marked of...

John D. MacDonald

Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will.

John D. MacDonald

Friendships, like marriages, are dependent on avoiding the unforgivable.

John D. MacDonald

Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will. Integrity is not a search for the re...

John D. MacDonald

In all emotional conflicts, the thing you find the most difficult to do, is the thing that you should do." --Meyer's Law

John D. MacDonald

Vulnerability is the curse of the thinking classes.

John D. MacDonald

Author Bio

  • NameJohn D. MacDonald
  • Descriptionwriter from the United States
  • BornJuly 24, 1916
  • DiedDecember 28, 1986
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionShort Story Writer; Novelist
  • AwardsNational Book Award