She was kind of girl who'd eat all your cashews and leave you with nothing but peanuts and filberts.

He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.

The boys with their feet on the desks know that the easiest murder case in the world to break is the one somebody tried to get very cute with; the one that really bothers them is the murder somebody only thought of two minutes before he pulled it off.

The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.

A nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy.

The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn't get published. The average -- or only slightly above average -- detective story does.... Whereas the good novel is not at all the same kind of book as the bad novel. It is about entirely different things. But the good detective story and the bad detective story are about exactly the same things, and they are about them in very much the same way.

Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.