I am all that there is of the most real.

Writing is a great comfort to people like me, who are unsure of themselves and have trouble expressing themselves properly.

Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.

Truth, however bitter, can be accepted, and woven into a design for living.

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

Ah, but life is like that! It does not permit you to arrange and order it as you will. It will not permit you to escape emotion, to live by the intellect and by reason! You cannot say, 'I will feel so much and no more.' Life, Mr. Welman, whatever else it is, is not reasonable. [Hercule Poirot]

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.