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

- S. S. Van Dine

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

- S. S. Van Dine

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

- S. S. Van Dine

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

- S. S. Van Dine

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.

- S. S. Van Dine

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

- S. S. Van Dine

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…

- S. S. Van Dine