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.

As a professional writer of detective stories, I string along with the ballplayers. I love a ball game.

Opinions, from experts, cost money.

Being broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.

In a world that operates largely at random, coincidences are to be expected, but any one of them must always be mistrusted.

What good is an obscenity trial except to popularize literature?

I'm not a collector. I don't keep letters, or books, or souvenirs. But I do keep one copy of each translation of my books into a foreign language. Have you ever seen a murder story printed in Singhalese? Wow!