With the crime novels, its delightful to have protagonists I can revisit in book after book. Its like having a fictitious family.

The first thought that occurred to me, that night when I heard the chairman of the jury announce my name, was, Just think how many people hate me at this moment. Naturally, I wanted to annoy those people even further by being arrogant.

All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insides of people. I know very little about the inside of myself.

If I was asked to say what was the greatest invention of human beings, I would say the sentence.

What is money, after all? Almost nothing, when one has a sufficiency of it.

Most crime fiction, no matter how 'hard-boiled' or bloodily forensic, is essentially sentimental, for most crime writers are disappointed romantics.

A man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him.