Author: Martha Grimes

Cites

• Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams (1)
  • IN: Vertigo 42 (2014) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: They only told me we were parting...
    FROM: Harbor Lights, (1960), Song, US
• Robert Frost (6)
  • IN: Fadeaway Girl (2011) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: This saying good-by on the edge of the dark And cold to an orchard so young in the bark Reminds me of all that can happen to harm An orchard away at the end of the farm. --- I wish I could promise to lie in the night And think of an orchard's arboreal plight When slowly (and nobody comes with a light) Its heart sinks lower under the sod. But something has to be left to God.
    FROM: Good-by and Keep Cold, (1923), Poem, US
  • IN: Belle Ruin (2005) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: If, as they say, some dust thrown in my eyes Will keep my talk from getting overwise, I'm not the one for putting off the proof. Let it be overwhelming, off a roof And round a corner, blizzard snow for dust, And blind me to a standstill if it must.
    FROM: "Dust in the Eyes", (1928), Poem, US
  • IN: Cold Flat Junction (2001) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I have kept hidden in the instep arch Of an old cedar at the waterside A broken drinking goblet like the Grail Under a spell so the wrong ones can't find it, So can't get saved, as Saint Mark says they mustn't (I stole the goblet from the children's playhouse.) Here are your waters and your watering place. Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
    FROM: from "Directive", (1947), Poem, US
  • IN: Foul Matter (2003) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: When I see birches bend to left and right Across the line of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
    FROM: "Birches", (1916), Poem, US
  • IN: The Old Wine Shades (2006) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: They don't dispose me, either one of them, To spare them any trouble. Double trouble's Always the witch's motto anyway. I'll double theirs for both of them -- you watch me. They'll find they've got the whole thing to do over.
    FROM: "The Pauper Witch of Grafton", (1923), Poem, US
  • IN: The Stargazey (1998) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Far in the pillared dark Thrush music went -- Almost like a call to come in To the dark and lament. But no, I was out for stars: I would not come in. I meant not even if asked, And I hadn't been.
    FROM: "Come In", (1943), Poem, US
• George Gissing (1)
  • IN: The Way of All Fish (2014) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Reardon [is] behind his age; he sells a manuscript as if he lived in Sam Johnson's Grub Street. But our Grub Street of today is quite a different place... it knows what literary fare is in demand in every part of the world, its inhabitants are men of business, however seedy.
    FROM: New Grub Street, (1891), Novel, UK
• Sherod Santos (1)
  • IN: Hotel Paradise (1996) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: My feeling (no doubt hopelessly tinged With how, were she here, her looks alone Would resist my attempts to say these things) That all this was already lost, even then. The Palace of Nowhere. L'hotel de Dream.
    FROM: Elegy for my Sister, (1995), Poem, US
• Wallace Stevens (2)
  • IN: The Black Cat (2010) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: That would be waving and that would be crying, Crying and shouting and meaning farewell
    FROM: Waving Adieu, Adieu, Adieu, (1936), Poem, US
  • IN: The End of the Pier (1992) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know, Why, when the singing ended and we turned Toward the town, tell why the glassy lights. The lights in the fishing boats at anchor there, As the night descended, tilting in the air, Mastered the night and portioned out the sea, Fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles, Arranging, deepening, enchanting night. Oh! Blessed rage for order, pale Ramon, The maker's rage to order words of the sea, Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred, And of ourselves and of our origins, In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds.
    FROM: "The Idea of Order at Key West", (1934), Poem, US
• A. E. Housman (1)
  • IN: Dakota (None) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The thoughts of others Were light and fleeting, Of lovers' meeting Or luck or fame. Mine were of trouble, And mine were steady, So I was ready When trouble came.
    FROM: I to my Perils, (1896), Poem, UK
• William Blake (1)
  • IN: Biting the Moon (1999) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state.
    FROM: "Auguries of Innocence", (1803), Poem, UK
• Edwin Arlington Robinson (1)
  • IN: Foul Matter (2003) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: No dark and evil story of the dead Would leave you less pernicious or less fair- Not even Lilith, with her famous hair; And Lilith was the devil, I have read. I cannot hate you, for I loved you then. The woods were golden then. There was a road Through beeches; and I said their smooth feet showed Like yours. Truth must have heard me from afar, For I shall never have to learn again That yours are cloven as no beech's are.
    FROM: "Another Dark Lady", (1916), Poem, US
• Robert De Niro (1)
  • IN: Foul Matter (2003) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Have no attachments. Allow nothing to be in your life that you cannot walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner.
    FROM: Heat, (1995), Film, US
• Richard Wilbur (1)
  • IN: The Winds of Change (2004) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: We fray into the future, rarely wrought Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
    FROM: "Year's End", (1950), Poem, US
• F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
  • IN: The Horse You Came In On (1993) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Civilized, and gay, and rotted, and polite.
    FROM: on Baltimore, (1935), Letter, US
• Gilbert & Sullivan (1)
  • IN: The Lamorna Wink (1999) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Oh! My name is John Wellington Wells, I'm a dealer in magic and spells, In blessings and curses, And ever-filled purses, In prophecies, witches, and knells.
    FROM: The Sorcerer, (1877), Song, UK
• Philip Larkin (1)
  • IN: The Grave Maurice (2002) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Do memories plague their ears like flies? They shake their heads. Dusk brims the shadows. Summer by summer all stole away, The starting gates, the crowds and cries -- All but the unmolesting meadows, Almanacked, their names live; they Have slipped their names, and stand at ease, Or gallop for what must be joy, And not a fieldglass sees them home, Or curious stop-watch prophesies: Only the groom, and the groom's boy, With bridles in the evening come.
    FROM: "At Grass", (1955), Poem, UK
• Arthur Rimbaud (1)
  • IN: The Old Contemptibles (1996) Fiction, Mystery Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Je serais bien l'enfant abandonné sur la jetée partie à la haute mer, le petit valet suivant l'allée dont le front touche le ciel.
    FROM: Enfance IV, (1886), Poem, France