The roof might fall in; anything could happen.

You got to look on the bright side, even if there ain't one.

Three times I have been mistaken for a prohibition agent, but never had any trouble clearing myself.

What I try to do is write a story about a detective rather than a detective story. Keeping the reader fooled until the last, possible moment is a good trick and I usually try to play it, but I can't attach more than secondary importance to it. The puzzle isn't so interesting to me as the behavior of the detective attacking it.

Nick: "Don't you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?" Nora: "No, thanks." Nick: "Maybe it would if I took one.

You don't pay a prostitute for sex, you pay her to leave afterwards.

My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.