To say that a man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I ….

Sometimes it's things that take the joy out of life, like a blowout when you're hitting sixty or a button coming off of a shirt when you're in a hurr….

I have a strong moral sense - by my standards..

I love books, food, music, sleep, people who work, heated arguments, the United States of America, and my wife and children. I dislike politicians, p….

Of course the modern detective story puts off its best tricks till the last, but Doyle always put his best tricks first and that's why they're still ….

I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the sli….

The more you put in your brain, the more it will hold - if you have one..

The requisitions of the income tax have added greatly to the attractions of mercenary crime..

No man was ever taken to hell by a woman unless he already had a ticket in his pocket..

The only thing I want is something I can't have; and that is to know if, 100 years from now, people will still buy my books..

Measure your minds height by the shadow it casts..

Subtlety chases the obvious up a never-ending spiral and never quite catches it..

A Dickens character to me is a theatrical projection of a character. Not that it isn't real. It's real, but in that removed sense. But Sherlock Holme….

Dignities are like faces; no two are the same..

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth..

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. Ha….

Bosh. I find a rival - but no, I won't flatter myself that Tecumseh Fox would consider himself a rival of Dol Bonner - I find an eminent detective in….

Only fools and philosophers waste time on the unknowable..

There are two kinds of characters in all fiction, the born and the synthetic. If the writer has to ask himself questions - is he tall, is he short? -….

As between the intolerable and the merely distasteful, I must choose the latter..

[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant..