A detective novel should contain no long descriptive passages, no literary dallying with side-issues, no subtly worked-out character analyses, no 'at….

There are few punishments too severe for a popular novel writer..

There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better..

Only, as long as we're going insane we may as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value..

Of all the criminal cases in which Philo Vance participated as unofficial investigator, the most sinister, the most bizarre, the seemingly most incom….

It has long been a source of wonder to me why the leading criminological writers--men like Edmund Lester Pearson, H. B. Irving, Filson Young, Canon B….

Giving full rein to one's cynicism as one goes along produces a normal outlet and maintains an emotional equilibrium..