Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking." "An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.

Sensationalism dies quickly, fear is long-lived.

One of the oddest things in life, as we all know, is the way that when you have heard a thing mentioned, within twenty-four hours you nearly always come across it again.

I didn't want to work. It was as simple as that. I distrusted work, disliked it. I thought it was a very bad thing that the human race had unfortunately invented for itself.

It is my experience that no one, in the course of conversation, can fail to give themselves away sooner or later. Everyone has an irresistible urge to talk about themselves.

Three months seems to me quite a reasonable time to complete a book, if one can get right down to it.

If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody.