Once I went professionally to an archaeological expedition-and I learnt something there. In the course of an excavation, when something comes up out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it. That is what I have been seeking to do-clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth-the naked shining truth.

Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend.

Don't think. That is the wrong way to bring anything back. Let it go. Sooner or later it will flash into your mind.

... it's always interesting when one doesn't see. If you don't see what a thing means, you must be looking at it wrong way round.

One little Indian boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.

I would like it to be said that I was a good writer of detective and thriller stories.

It is deplorable...to remove all the romance - all the mystery!