Here be dragons to be slain, here be rich rewards to gain; If we perish in the seeking, why, how small a thing is death!

There certainly does seem a possibility that the detective story will come to an end, simply because the public will have learnt all the tricks.

The keeping of an idle woman is a badge of superior social status.

[O]ne can scarcely be frightened off writing what one wants to write for fear an obscure reviewer should patronise one on that account.

The one thing which seems to me quite impossible is to take into consideration the kind of book one is expected to write; surely one can only write the book that is there to be written.

What we ask is to be human individuals, however peculiar and unexpected. It is no good saying: "You are a little girl and therefore you ought to like dolls"; if the answer is, "But I don't," there is no more to be said.

Books... are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.