Detective Quotes

Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective. (John Buchan)
Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. View quote
Arthur C. Clarke
The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce an artistic job of writing. View quote
Raymond Chandler
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story. View quote
Agatha Christie
Very little detective work, he was noticing, could be accomplished before a crime occurred. View quote
Kim Stanley Robinson
The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense but one, that one sense being that in life as we know it such a man would not be a private detective. View quote
Raymond Chandler
You can always tell a detective on TV. He never takes his hat off. View quote
Raymond Chandler
Love interest nearly always weakens a mystery because it introduces a type of suspense that is antagonistic to the detective's struggle to solve the problem. It stacks the cards, and in nine cases out of ten, it eliminates at least two useful suspects. The only effective love interest is that which creates a personal hazard for the detective - but which, at the same time, you instinctively feel to be a mere episode. A really good detective never gets married. View quote
Raymond Chandler
I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective. View quote
James Ellroy
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 the best ones. View quote
Rex Stout
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 your apartment, and that alone is enough, without adding that he is concealed in your bedroom while I am discussing my business with you... (Rex Stout)
There are only two kinds of books which you can write and be pretty sure you're going to make a living - cook books and detective stories. View quote
Rex Stout
All the plays that have ever been written, from ancient Greece to the present day, have never really been anything but thrillers... Drama's always been realistic and there's always been a detective about... Every play's an investigation brought to a successful conclusion. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
I just love family meetings. Very cozy, with the Christmas garlands round the fireplace and a nice pot of tea and a detective from Scotland Yard ready to arrest you. View quote
Rick Riordan
Reading my way all the way through Sherlock Holmes gave me a lifelong love for crime and detective fiction. View quote
Stanley Bing
I have never read horror, nor do I consider The Exorcist to be such, but rather as a suspenseful supernatural detective story, or paranormal police procedural. View quote
William Peter Blatty
It means that no matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down. View quote
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Detective fiction could not have existed without Edgar Allan Poe. View quote
Giles Foden
Detective, I don't know where the boyfriend is, really," I said. And it was true, considering tide, current, and the habits of marine scavengers. -Dexter. View quote
Jeff Lindsay
Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories. View quote
Jeffery Deaver
They wouldn't tell Scipio how much of the counterfeit cash was left since, as Riccio put it, 'You're a detective now, after all. (Cornelia Funke)
Ned said "Nancy Drew is the best girl detective in the whole world!" "Don't you believe him," Nancy said quickly. "I have solved some mysteries, I'll admit, and I enjoy it, but I'm sure there are many other girls who could do the same. View quote
Carolyn Keene
Chuckling to herself, Nancy said aloud, "Romance and detective work won't mix tonight! View quote
Carolyn Keene
I didn't know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting! View quote
Marie Windsor
American violence is public life, it's a public way of life, it became a form, a detective story form. So I should think that any number of black writers should go into the detective story form. View quote
Chester Himes