Politics is still the man's game. The women are allowed to do the chores, the dirty work, and now and then--but only occasionally--one is present at some secret conference or other. But it's not the rule. They can go out and get the vote, if they can and will; they can collect money, they can be grateful for being permitted to work. But that is all.

my crime books are actually novels and are written as such. One might even say that each one is really two novels, one of which is the story I tell the reader, and the other the buried story I know and let slip now and then into a clue to whet the reader's interest.

The mystery story is two stories in one: the story of what happened and the story of what appeared to happen.

When a great burden is lifted, the relief is not always felt at once. The galled places still ache.

It is only in his head that man is heroic; in the pit of his stomach he is always a coward.

Love is like the measles, all the worse when it comes late.

[When working on a book] I have an almost complete detachment from the world I live in, a sort of armor against distraction. I talk to people, move about, appear on the surface much as usual. But later on I have only a confused memory of what has happened during that period.