It is always wiser, where there is a choice, to trust inertia. It is the greatest force in the world.

One of the hardest things to believe is that anyone will abandon the effort to escape a charge of murder. It is extremely important to suspend disbelief on that. If you don't, the story is spoiled.

God made you and me, in certain respects, quite unequal, and it would be futile to try any interference with His arrangements.

A character who is thought-out is not born, he or she is contrived. A born character is round, a thought-out character is flat.

As I understand it, a born executive is a guy who, when anything difficult or unexpected happens, yells for somebody to come and help him.

I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn't have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you're guilty you'll get it in the neck and if you're innocent you can't possibly be harmed. No matter who you are.

Everyone has something they don't want anyone to see; that is one of the functions of a home, to provide a spot to keep such things.