He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn't owe too much money.

I merely say that all reading for pleasure is escape, whether it be Greek, mathematics, astronomy, Benedetto Croce, or The Diary of the Forgotten Man. To say otherwise is to be an intellectual snob, and a juvenile at the art of living.

A nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy.

Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men.

When the plot flags, bring in a man with a gun.

Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool, a clever fool - perhaps - but a fool just the same.

The creative artist seems to be almost the only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground. You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own ego is always in the foreground of every picture

A dead man is the best fall guy in the world. He never talks back.

The moment a man begins to talk about technique that's proof that he is fresh out of ideas.