I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

An appreciative listener is always stimulating.

a lot of trouble has been caused by memoirs. Indiscreet revelations, that sort of thing. People who have been close as an oyster all their lives seem positively to relish causing trouble when they themselves shall be comfortably dead.

The trouble with you and me, is that we don't live in the real world. We dream of fantastic things that may never happen.

There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.

But I know human nature, my friend, and I tell you that, suddenly confronted with the possibility of being tried for murder, the most innocent person will lose his head and do the most absurd things.

Ideas are like everything else. They've got to be marketed.