The danger that may really threaten (crime fiction) is that soon there will be more writers than readers

The sole justification of teaching, of the school itself, is that the student comes out of it able to do something he could not do before. I say do and not know, because knowledge that doesn't lead to doing something new or doing something better is not knowledge at all.

The book, like the bicycle, is a perfect form.

Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes.

The reason why research is like sculpting from memory is that in neither is there a concrete visible subject to copy directly. The subject - as sculptors themselves are fond of saying - is hidden in the block of material.

Great cultural changes begin in affectation and end in routine.

I once worked as a salesman and was very independent. I took orders from no one.