Everything in a story should be credible.

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.

What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.

Only fools and philosophers waste time on the unknowable.

Every Sherlock Holmes story has at least one marvelous scene.

We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.

I don't approve of open fires. You can't think, or talk or even make love in front of a fireplace. All you can do is stare at it.