Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

The stage on which we play our little dramas of life and love has for most of us but one setting.

pretense is the oil that lubricates society.

[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.

Every writer knows the terror of an unexpected success. How to carry on? How to repeat it?

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

It's money that brings trouble. It always has and it always will.