The complexity of human relationships is never simple to follow; it is like intricate lacework, but lacework made of steel.

Murder is a plant of slow growth.

A request not to worry is perhaps the least soothing message capable of human utterance.

murder is not polite.

I seat myself at the typewriter and hope, and lurk.

contemplating the misfortunes of others does not lighten one's own trouble but instead adds to it.

there is no gateway to maturity; there is no line that is crossed. Maturity is like a maze, one path leading to another; it is like a great building full of corridors, one turning into another. Did anybody ever reach the end, so there was a clear way ahead, so he could say, now I am rich with knowledge, now I know all the answers?