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.
Raymond ChandlerI thought that writing a detective story would be a wonderful apprenticeship because, whatever people tell you, a crime novel is not easy to write well. As I continued with my craft I became increasingly fascinated by the form and realized that you can use the formula to say something true about men and women and the society in which they live.
One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind . Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Two-thirds of 2001 is realistic hardware and technology to establish background for the metaphysical , philosophical , and religious meanings later.
arthur c. clarkeAll 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.
eugène ionescoThe detective novel is?the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the life it pretends to build on.
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.
agatha christieLife isn’t divided into genres. It’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.
alan mooreHe's had a tough life. As is not unusual in Jewish families - if you've ever seen the movie Avalon - I think somebody's cut the turkey on Uncle Louis a few years ago... That doesn't change my view of him when I was young and he was a detective.
howard safirBosh. 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 stoutThey began by controlling books of cartoons and then detective books and, of course, films, one way or another, one group or another, political bias , religious prejudice , union pressures; there was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark , afraid of the future , afraid of the past , afraid of the present , afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves.
ray bradburyEvery man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
john buchanThe 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 the artistic job of writing.
Raymond ChandlerYou can always tell a detective on TV. He never takes his hat off.
Raymond ChandlerI'm a detective, but nuns could stonewall Sam Spade into an asylum.
dennis lehaneIf psychics were truly successful and if their results were not simply the consequence of trickery (at worse) or good interviewing skills (at best) then why don't law enforcement agencies have psychic detective squads, a real X-files Unit, or other ways to integrate these paranormal investigative capabilites?
The No.1Ladies' detective Agency.
alexander mccall smith