A really good detective never gets married.

Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.

It is a language which is being molded by writers to do delicate things and yet be in the grasp of superficially educated people.

The wet air was as cold as the ashes of love.

He (The Agent) just takes ten per cent of your life.

Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men.

You're broke, eh?" I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.