No literary form is more revealing, more spontaneous or more individual than a letter.

I knew the facts of death before I knew the facts of life. There never was a time when I didn't see the skull beneath the skin.

The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting.

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.

Publishers don't nurse you; they buy and sell you.

I don't want anyone to look to me, not for protection, not for happiness, not for love, not for anything.

In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets.