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

Women are like dogs really. They love like dogs, a little insistently. And they like to fetch and carry and come back wistfully after hard words, and learn rather easily to carry a basket.

it is axiomatic with most writing people that there are no such things as perfect conditions for work.

There is no place in the world, I imagine, for a philosopher with a sense of humor, a new leisure, and an inquiring turn of mind!

There is a point at which curiosity becomes unbearable, when it becomes an obsession, like hunger.

Some day some one will write a book about that frantic search of the creative worker for silence and freedom, not only from interruption but from the fear of interruption.

[The writer] wants both to do the best possible work and also to reach the largest possible audience. The result is a fairly normal condition of discouragement.