The moment a man sets his thoughts down on paper, however secretly, he is in a sense writing for publication.

All reading for pleasure is entertainment.

An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.

She had eyes like strange sins.

Love interest nearly always weakens a mystery because it introduces a type of suspense that is antagonistic to the detective's struggle to solve the problem. It stacks the cards, and in nine cases out of ten, it eliminates at least two useful suspects. The only effective love interest is that which creates a personal hazard for the detective - but which, at the same time, you instinctively feel to be a mere episode. A really good detective never gets married.

You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that, oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was.

If you're not tough it's hard to survive in this world; and if you're not kind then you don't deserve to survive.