- [first lines]
- Robert 'Bob' Jarrett: What's that for?
- Maria Hudson: The final payment, as specified in your contract.
- Robert 'Bob' Jarrett: [chuckles] You know I can't take that.
- Maria Hudson: Look, Robert, you've done a marvelous job organizing the material. The family's very grateful to you for everything you've done.
- Robert 'Bob' Jarrett: Maria, If I accept that check, I'm condoning what's happened here. I'm sorry.
- Dorothy Westerfield: Seems like a good time to give up smoking.
- Jessica Fletcher: You know, that's a marvelous idea. Why don't you do it?
- Dorothy Westerfield: Just because I can't find a match? That is the coward's way out.
- Jessica Fletcher: Oh, now, you're not going to tell me that Cat helped you to write the book.
- Robert 'Bob' Jarrett: In her own way, yeah.
- Maria Hudson: Why don't you save your caustic wit for a more appropriate occasion, Andrew?
- Andrew Hudson: And what would that be, Sister? The second coming of Trevor Hudson? I thought that was the subject under discussion.
- Maria Hudson: Murder is a solution to a problem found only in cheap thrillers- the kind you write.
- Jessica Fletcher: One thing I've learned, Maria: There's nothing that a person is incapable of if the motive is strong enough.
- Sheriff Hank Masters: Someday I'm gonna catch me a criminal, and he's gonna say, "Sheriff, I did it, and I deserve to be punished for it.
- Dorothy Westerfield: Now look, I'm in the business of publishing books - some good, some bad - and I don't really care which as long as they sell lots of copies.
- Maria Hudson: I think under the circumstances, it would be best if you were to leave.
- Jessica Fletcher: Best or safer?